A making-of book documenting the troubled production of an ambitious sci-fi thriller, Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie is as insightful as it is visually impressive.
Titan Books has published a hardback book titled Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie available from numerous online retailers and high street book stores. Gemini Man stars Will Smith (Bad Boys, Independence Day and Men in Black), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane, Die Hard 4.0 and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Clive Owen (Children of Men, Sin City and The International) as directed by multi Oscar award winning Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hulk and Life of Pi) and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI, Days of Thunder and The Rock). Can Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie deliver what it sets out to by producing an official companion to the groundbreaking film?
Coming Into Focus: The Journey of Gemini Man details the two decades worth of development limbo that Gemini Man had faced leading up to the eventual first day on-set including insightful interview quotes from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, executive producer Chad Oman, David Ellison of Skydance Media, director Ang Lee and lead actor Will Smith. Meanwhile, there is also discussion about Ang Lee’s approach to not only the story of Gemini Man, but the metaphor of Will Smith’s character Henry Brogan meeting his younger self. Ang Lee and David Ellison also mention elevating the quality of their filming equipment to capture every scene of Gemini Man in simultaneous 4K resolution, stereoscopic 3D and 120 frames-per-second, alongside how that assisted in integrating Will Smith’s digital performance of his younger self.
Ang Lee: Riding the Dragon delves deep into how Ang Lee directs authentic scenes on a consistent basis and the techniques he utilises to achieve such a tremendous threshold of quality; complimented by interviews with Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jerry Bruckheimer, Benedict Wong, Ang Lee, Clive Owen and Brian Bell.
Jerry Bruckheimer: Bolt of Lightning analyses Jerry Bruckheimer’s career and how he believes in creating relatable experiences for films and television viewers; exactly what the logo for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Television symbolises; and more besides.
The chapter titled Retired Assassin discusses who Henry Brogan really is; relating to the conscience of a man that used to follow his orders to kill anyone that he was told to. However, he is now retired on a small boat, despite rather ironically having a fear of drowning, while practising his carpentry skills such as making birdhouses. Further discussion of the special effects and processes required for Will Smith’s younger character named Junior is highlighted to focus on his sensational performance by filming his role as Henry Brogan with a stand-in actor for placement of eye line to make the interaction of both characters more believable before performing the other role as Junior via performance capture technology; reminiscent to that of a cinematic videogame. Elsewhere in the chapter, there is coverage of a scene that shows Henry Brogan’s job situated in the picturesque Belgian countryside as a train hurtles past at close to 200 kilometres per hour, alongside discussing the characters involved and finding the perfect location to film the scene.
Savannah is the title of the first of multiple chapters that begins to look at a wider range of locations featured in Gemini Man. Globetrotters: Gemini Man on Location includes interviews with Jerry Bruckheimer, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, David Ellison, Benedict Wong and more on how refreshing filming on location was for the entire cast and crew, alongside facts on where the cast and crew were situated and how equipment was transported. Further elements of the chapter encompasses the sets for Gemini Man located within Savannah including Henry’s house and a specific scene that takes place there, the Buttermilk Sound Marina, Pelican Point, Danny’s apartment and Baron’s seaplane, alongside character biographies on other major supporting characters such as Danny.
Cartagena is a further chapter that showcases the core environments of Gemini Man, but instead of Savannah; it is the architecture, culture and history of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia. The major areas of Cartagena that is focused upon are the cultural city locations followed by the technical processes, camera rigging equipment and visual effects required to create a motorbike chase scene between Henry Brogan and his younger self Junior, alongside a character biography of Baron.
Budapest continues the theme of chapters set on location including such major landmarks as Vajdahunyad Castle, the chapel and catacombs, alongside depicting how a huge fight scene between Henry Brogan and Junior was staged in medieval catacombs and how their huge 4K resolution stereoscopic 3D 120 frames per second camera rigs were customised to fit into some of the narrower spaces. The Budapest chapter concludes with a feature titled Creating Junior that really showcases the extent of visual fidelity of Will Smith’s motion capture performance with imagery providing a storyboard of filming and visual effects application to the final scene. In fact, Junior is so detailed that he even has an accurately simulated blood flow and small skin blemishes to make the CGI face look as real, lifelike and emotional as possible.
AMF is the title of the final chapter that includes an overview of some vehicles and equipment utilised in various phases of Gemini Man such as the G600 plane, alongside differing subject matter such as the location of the Gemini Compound, a character biography of Clay Verris as portrayed by Clive Owen, filming the final showdown and more besides. The final chapter culminates in a subchapter titled New Immersive Cinema: An Evolutionary Leap that covers every step of technological progression utilised to overcome technical hurdles in order to create a state of the art 4K resolution stereoscopic 3D 120 frames per second action film featuring two completely different characters portrayed by Will Smith. There is also an acknowledgements page that includes a list of thanks from the writer of Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie book, Michael Singer.
Quality of writing is what helps to really envisage just how special Gemini Man genuinely is, especially given the pure effort of conducting such in-depth quality interviews with all of the core cast and crew of Gemini Man in many unique areas of subject matter. For instance, all of the environments, visual effects, camera rigging, technological innovations and so much more are always fascinating, especially due to reading the experience of those who developed or utilised the technology from a filming or acting performance perspective.
Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie book’s presentation is amazing as it immediately gives the air of an official companion as Will Smith’s Henry Brogan stares into the eyes of his motion capture performance character named Junior upon the front cover, while the back cover artwork also features an intriguing synopsis. Meanwhile, the vast majority of pages include onset photographs featuring the entirety of the core cast and crew that is perfectly framed around the enthralling paragraphs.
Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie book’s value is for fans of the Gemini Man film and the cast and crew to go behind-the-scenes to experience how Gemini Man was filmed and created throughout the duration of an incredible 164 pages.
Fans of Gemini Man can also look forward to Gemini Man: The Official Movie Novelization paperback that you can find more about at https://titanbooks.com/70111-gemini-man-the-official-movie-novelization/
Analysis • Title: Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie • Writers: Michael Singer • Contributions: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Ang Lee, Jerry Bruckheimer, Chad Oman, David Ellison, Brian Bell and more • Publisher: Titan Books • Length: 164 pages • Cover: Hardback
Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie can be purchased in the UK from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gemini-Man-Art-Making-Movie/dp/178909223X/ and Forbidden Planet at https://forbiddenplanet.com/276963-gemini-man-the-art-making-of-the-film-hardcover/
Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie can be purchased in America and Canada from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Gemini-Man-Art-Making-Film/dp/178909223X/
You can also find Titan Books’ official website including a back catalogue of captivating books at https://www.titanbooks.com/ and product details regarding Gemini Man: The Art and Making of the Movie at https://titanbooks.com/70020-gemini-man-the-art-and-making-of-the-movie/
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Jason
Jason plays all genres of games and enjoys all different kinds of experiences that the games industry has to offer. Jason’s favourite PlayStation exclusive franchises throughout various eras include: Crash Bandicoot, God of War, Gran Turismo, inFamous, Killzone, Little Big Planet, MotorStorm, Resistance, Spyro the Dragon, Uncharted, Wipeout and various games that never became big name franchises. A special mention goes to Black Rock’s superb Split Second: Velocity as it is rather unbelievable that it will never receive a sequel.
Jason now mainly plays modern PlayStation games on home console and portably, but occasionally returns to the old retro classics on the 3DO, PS1 and PS2 such as discovering Cool Spot Goes to Hollywood 20 years after its original release on PS1. Jason is happy to see gaming coming full circle with updates for retro classics such as Alien Breed, Superfrog and Crash Bandicoot.
