Tom Hanks & Forrest Gump Director’s $15M Bomb Gets Generally Positive Response From VFX Artists

Tom Hanks has worked with a number of celebrated and respected filmmakers over the course of his career, with Robert Zemeckis remaining one of his most frequent collaborators. The pair first worked together in 1994’s Forrest Gump, which earned 13 Oscar nominations and won six, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. Following this major success, Hanks and Zemeckis collaborated on a handful of other films, none of which quite reached this same level of success and acclaim.

Hanks and Zemeckis’ next movie after Forrest Gump was 2000’s Cast Away, which was a critical and commercial success. Following this, however, they worked together on the divisive The Polar Express (2004), and this marked their last narrative feature film together until the critically-panned Pinocchio in 2022. Then, in 2024, Hanks and Zemeckis reunited for another film, which saw the director once again embracing his passion for visual effects and unique filmmaking techniques.

VFX Artists Praise Here’s Ambitious Effects

The Hanks & Zemeckis Movie Was A Box Office Disaster

Here earns praise from VFX artists for several key scenes after a disastrous theatrical performance. Based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire and released last November, the divisive drama chronicles the lives of Richard (Hanks) and Margaret (Robin Wright) across decades in New England, with the camera remaining fixed to one wall of their house throughout the movie’s runtime. Here reviews were mostly negative from critics and the film grossed only $15 million in theaters. One reason for the divisiveness was the movie’s visuals, which include extensive de-aging for Hanks and Wright.

Tom Hanks standing by a tree in Cast Away (2000)

Every Tom Hanks & Robert Zemeckis Movie, Ranked Worst To Best

Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis have maintained a fascinating creative partnership for almost 30 years, but what’s their best movie together?

In a recent episode of their “VFX Artists React” YouTube series, the VFX artists at Corridor Crew analyze the opening sequence from Here, as well as the de-aging effects. The film opens with a sequence set in prehistoric times as the dinosaurs experience an extinction event, which host Niko Pueringer calls “pretty baller“. After the movie advances millions of years to when the central house has been built, Pueringer shares his thoughts about how Zemeckis pulled off the look of the living room and the street outside the window:

“These are probably real setups, but I can also see them just doing the stuff outside the window as green screen or Volume.”

The movie also features many scenes with Hanks and Wright de-aged by several decades, which earns a generally positive response from the VFX artists. Guest Freddie Wong remarks that Hanks, especially, “is looking good,” and, despite Wright’s de-aging not always working, the effects overall have “gotten really good.” Pueringer then goes into more detail about how the actual de-aging was pulled off:

“You’re basically looking at fancy, fancy deepfake technology. And of course compositing and all that kind of stuff too. They actually had a thing on set where you could, in real time, visualize the deepfake on the actors. You could see if it’s kind of working, if the lighting is working, which is really smart. I think that’s like 100% what you need these days. Yeah, it look pretty good.”

Wright previously starred opposite Hanks in Forrest Gump.

What Here’s Positive VFX Artist Review Means For The Movie

The Hanks Movie’s Reception Explained

Here was made on an estimated budget around $50 million, meaning it may have been looking at a break-even point of $100 million or higher. A $15 million box office haul, then, is a very disappointing result, and the film lost a great deal of money. On Rotten Tomatoes, Here has only a 37% score from critics, but the audience score is a little more lukewarm at 59%.

Here‘s user score on IMDb is also decent at 6.3 out of 10.

Here marks the third disappointment in a row for Hanks and Zemeckis after the lackluster reception to Pinnochio and the mixed response to The Polar Express. The positive response to the film from the folks at Corridor Crew isn’t likely to change the narrative surrounding the film, but it does highlight just how big of swing Here is from a storytelling and filmmaking perspective. Zemeckis tried something very ambitious with the film and, though it didn’t really pay off, such creative risks are still worth celebrating.

Source: Corridor Crew