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Co-written by Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff, Gemini Man features Will Smith as a retired assassin who is marked for death by a younger clone of himself. Like Lee’s last film, the 2016 war drama Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, the hitman thriller is shot with an ultra-clear high frame rate (120 frames-per-second as opposed to conventional movies that are shot at 24-frames-per-second) and in 3D.

The technology is so advanced that only 14 theatres in the U.S. can show the film in 120fps (the closest you’ll get in Canada is seeing the finished product in 60fps).

But Lee says that he hopes more filmmakers join him in utilizing the technology because he thinks that, in the future, this is how audiences will watch movies.

Lee is not alone in embracing high-frame rate filmmaking. Peter Jackson shot his Hobbit trilogy in 48fps and James Cameron is lensing his Avatar sequels using HFR cameras.

“To me, it’s the logical next step,” Lee says. “As a movie watcher, I want to see dimension. Once we saw black and white, silent films, we wanted to see colour and hear sound. Three dimension is closer to real life. So, to me, it’s natural … that (high) frame rate is normal. Most movies are too dark. But,” he says pausing for emphasis, “maybe my eyes are somewhat different.”

As he gets set to turn 65 later this month, Lee says he was convinced the technology could help chart a new film language after Billy Lynn.

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Gemini Man helps build on that thanks to its crisply shot action sequences and a digitally de-aged version of a younger Will Smith. But the process, Lee says, wasn’t a smooth one. “We don’t have enough data or feedback, yet, to tell us what to do or know what’s right or wrong,” he laughs. “It’s a strange place … the people who are paying for this want to outdo what 2D movies do … but the group (working in this format) is small. It’s a strange place.”