The Irishman De-Ageing Technology

Epic crime drama The Irishman used innovative technology to depict its characters ageing over five decades. This enabled director Martin Scorsese to allow veteran actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci to act freely, without being held back by the tracking dots otherwise used to generate such effects.

Visual effects company ILM developed a new three-camera rig to capture the actors’ visual data. In addition, thousands of images of the actors were documented from other films, showing each individual’s face at various angles and in different lighting. This enabled their visual data to be cross-referenced against images of them at different ages using AI.

Designed by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).