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NBCUniversal – Quantum Leap

Nearly 30 years after leaving the air, the classic series Quantum Leap has returned with all new adventures. To promote the return of the series during Sunday Night Football, NBCUniversal tapped Digital Domain VFX Supervisor Matt Dougan and his team to help de-age the Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana in his prime.

The spot featuring Montana begins with the revival’s lead, Raymond Lee, heading toward a football field in San Francisco 1984. Lee then looks into a mirror and is thrilled to see Montana – as he looked in the 1980s – staring back at him. To depict the legendary football star as he appeared in the 80s for the promo, the DD team deployed our proprietary tool Charlatan, a face swapping platform powered by machine learning. With the de-aging work done, Digital Domain’s artists then filled in the rest of the scene with a CG environment, adding in the background that appears behind Montana in the mirror. With its part done, Digital Domain then submitted the work to the production team, who then created the rest of the teaser around that moment.