Swedish comedy 'The Square' is surprise Cannes winner TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017 38 (From left) Best Actor prize laureate US actor Joaquin Phoenix, Best Screenplay co-laureate British director Lynne Ramsay, Grand Prix laureate French director Robin Campillo (rear), Best Actress Prize laureate German actress Diane Kruger, French actress and President of the Camera d'Or jury Sandrine Kiberlain, Camera d'Or laureate French director Leonor Serraille, French actress Laetiti Dosch, French actress Juliette Binoche and Spanish director and President of the Feature Film Jury Pedro Almodovar pose on stage at the end of the closing ceremony of the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. — AFP How Hollywood is giving its biggest stars digital facelifts ohnny Depp is 53 years old but he cal for "Pirates." said Trent Claus, the visual effects supervisor moves and reacts to movement and expres- a full-on human performer that plays a key doesn't look a day over 26 in the new "No one else can be Jack Sparrow," said for Lola VFX. "People can tell when there is sions." To counteract this, productions will role throughout the duration of a feature J"Pirates of the Caribbean" movie - at Gary Brozenich, the Oscar-nominated VFX something amiss. Even if they can't put their often shoot a younger double to mimic an film," he said. "I think that that's really the least for a few moments. There was no plas- artist who oversaw visual effects for the film. finger on what is wrong, they can tell that actor's performance, which they will use as Holy Grail." — AP tic surgeon involved, heavy makeup or "Trying to do a digital approximation ... something is wrong." And while the artists a reference point for how the younger skin archival footage used to take the actor back audiences would see right through it." have gotten better over the years and have should behave and look in certain lights. to his boyish "Cry Baby" face, however. It's Brozenich and the filmmakers decided to mostly managed to avoid drifting into the all post-production visual effects, and after bring Depp back to how he looked around dreaded uncanny valley - the term used to Fictional destruction a decade of refining the process since Brad the time of "21 Jump Street" and "Cry Baby" describe the eerie feeling you get when "We're constantly fighting making it look Pitt ran the gamut of time in "The Curious and went through a number of iterations, looking at a digital person who is near-life- lifelike. One of the advantages of the Case of Benjamin Button," it's becoming over the course of six months, to arrive at like, but not quite enough - there are still process that we use is by keeping the origi- commonplace in major Hollywood movies. the perfect age (roughly 26) - which Depp, trouble spots. "One of the things that we nal actor, we have that starting point of life, Depp is just the latest mega-star to get Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer had to sign struggle with is the bottom of the chin. As of reality," Claus said. It makes the whole the drastic de-aging treatment on screen, off on. The final shots, of which there are 20- you get older there tends to be a lot of sag process harder, but, "It's worth it." Reactions, joining the ranks of Robert Downey Jr (in 25, took about 15 artists a year of work. and extra skin that develop underneath the lately have been mixed, ranging from nos- "Captain America: Civil War"), Michael That Depp has been famous since that jaw," Claus said. "It is unfortunately not just talgic delight and "how'd they do that" Douglas (in "Ant-Man"), Kurt Russell (in age was both a blessing and a curse for the a simple task of removing the wrinkles curiosity to dismay and wariness about its "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2") and scores production. They had numerous reference because the skin isn't going to be respond- future. New York Magazine critic David of others getting digital facelifts to play points to work with, but, so would the audi- ing the same as it did when you were Edelstein wrote that the "recreations" are younger versions of themselves. In the old ence. "Working on the human face is one of younger. You have to change not only the "far more disturbing in their real-world days, a lucky unknown lookalike (or look the, if not the most challenging thing to do," way it looks on the outside but how it implications than the fictional destruction enough alike) could have scored the part of of planets and galaxies." young Jack Sparrow or Tony Stark. Now, if For New York Times critic Manohla the film has the budget, the stars get to Dargis, Russell's younger visage was "weird" have it both ways - and audiences get a nos- and "disrupting." "It makes you contemplate talgic flashback. Lola Visual Effects is whether this Benjamin Button-style age- responsible for Depp's transformation, and reversing is going to become an increasing- most of the Marvel tricks, which have ly standard (and creepy) industry practice," included making Chris Evans scrawny for she wrote. "Pirates 5" co-director Espen the original "Captain America" and Hayley Sandberg isn't as dark about it. "For me it's Atwell some 70 years older for the sequel. just another storytelling tool and I think it's really cool," he said. And for the VFX artists, Digital approximation it's only the beginning. "Right now what Lola was the pioneer behind "Benjamin we're using it for is a very nuts and bolts Button," too, and sells their services to all solution to a problem. There's a different the major studios. It's one of a handful of and more creative future for it," Brozenich vendors that have gotten in the so-called said. "There can be even crazier, more cre- "beauty work" business. It's often meant to ative uses for it ... maybe a hybrid of several go unnoticed (like removing a blemish), and actors." is generally buried under mountains of con- He thinks the next step is a digital char- fidentiality agreements. In the case of Depp, acter that plays a larger part, and not just a and most of Lola's de-aging work, the flashback. After all, the young Han Solo process starts with capturing a performance movie isn't using a de-aged Harrison Ford or from the actor and then manipulating it. Billy Dee Williams - they've cast Alden This isn't always necessary - "Rogue One" Ehrenreich and Donald Glover. "We have This combination of photos released by recreated the late Peter Cushing's Grand digital characters that are a primary part of Disney, shows the character Jack Sparrow at Moff Tarkin without him, and Carrie Fisher's This combination of images released by Disney-Marvel shows Kurt Russell portraying Ego in (films), like Rocket and Groot from two stages of his life in "Pirates of the Princess Leia using doubles - but it was criti- scenes from, "Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2." — AP photos 'Guardians of the Galaxy' ... But they're never Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales..