Hollywood’s obsession with de-aging technology means the days when movies and TV shows would simply hire an actor with a passing resemblance to the character in question are drawing to a close, but Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny still managed to make a casting call that could generously be described as somewhere between head-scratching and outright idiotic.
The fifth and final installment in the iconic franchise is in danger of losing a fortune for Disney and Lucasfilm after a lukewarm first week at the box office, with the reported $295 million budget and additional marketing costs ensuring it’s got a mountain to climb in order to turn a profit.
The extended opening sequence claimed to have the finest de-aging cinema had ever seen, and while it’s definitely one of the better examples, it teeters on the brink of the uncanny valley whenever Harrison Ford opens his mouth or moves his face. However, Dial of Destiny could have avoided it altogether and paid tribute to the prologue of The Last Crusade, too, and it’s all to do with Anthony Ingruber.
The actor is credited as Ford’s 1944 double in the film, and he also got a gratuitous cameo as a bidder during the Moroccan-set stretch of the story. The two have previous, though, with Ingruber quite literally playing a younger version of the Star Wars legend’s character in The Age of Adaline, so why waste millions on the de-aging when he was right there and had done the exact same thing before?
Hiring an actor who’d very recently played a young Harrison Ford to play another young Harrison Ford just to toss their contributions aside in favor of sketchy pixelated trickery is a ludicrous call, especially when audiences remain so skeptical and unconvinced by the technology.
