The upcoming film "The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum" will be one of the first major Hollywood movies where machine learning technologies are officially used in the process of digitally de-aging actors. The film's director, Andy Serkis, confirmed that AI will be part of the production pipeline, but emphasized that the film will not be created solely with artificial intelligence.
Serkis, known for his work on motion and facial capture in the "Planet of the Apes" trilogy, noted that traditional filming methods will remain the foundation of the project. AI will be used selectively—to adjust the age of performers, which is a standard practice in the industry but has rarely been publicly acknowledged as the use of machine learning.
At this point, the director has not revealed which specific actors will undergo de-aging. However, more than 25 years have passed since the release of "The Fellowship of the Ring," and for many returning stars, including Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen, visual age correction becomes an inevitable necessity to preserve the canonical appearance of the characters.
My analysis: The decision to officially acknowledge the use of AI is a strategic move that removes potential disputes about the "unnaturalness" of the image. At the same time, it signals to the market: major studios are no longer hiding the use of algorithms, and this is now becoming not an experiment but a routine tool. For crypto and AI investors, this is additional confirmation that the market for generative and retouching models will only grow, especially in the entertainment and post-production sectors.