Paramount has released a new Gemini Man featurette along with three new images for the upcoming action thriller. Will Smith stars as an assassin who’s being hunted by his younger self. The hook of the film is that Smith plays both characters and is able to play himself at fifty and at twenty-three thanks to the magic of CGI.

What’s interesting in this featurette is that VFX Supervisor Bill Westenhofer says, “This is not de-aging. This is not face-replacement. What you see for Junior is a completely digital creation 100% driven by Will Smith’s performance.” I wish there was a bit more detail here about how this differs from de-aging or face replacement since the behind-the-scenes footage shows Will Smith doing motion capture work. It’s not like Clive Owen is talking to a tennis ball and they drop in a CGI Will Smith. Hopefully when the film is released on Blu-ray, we’ll get a solid bit of special features to explain how exactly they pulled off his cutting-edge visual effect.

Check out the featurette and images below for Gemini Man. The film opens October 11th and also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong.

Here’s the official synopsis for Gemini Man:

Gemini Man is an innovative action-thriller starring Will Smith as Henry Brogan, an elite assassin, who is suddenly targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative that seemingly can predict his every move.  The film is directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ang Lee and produced by renown producers Jerry Bruckheimer, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger.  Also starring are Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen and Benedict Wong.

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Image via Paramount
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Image via Paramount
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Image via Paramount