Beckham digitally aged for anti-malaria video
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A one-minute video by Malaria No More UK starts off with an aged Beckham (left) bringing a message from the future, about how the disease has been hypothetically eradicated, and then segues into the current day Beckham (right).
PHOTO: MALARIA NO MORE UK
LONDON • Former footballer David Beckham, famed as much for his skills on the pitch as for his looks, is not too vain to appear 30 years older for a good cause.
In a campaign video to raise awareness of malaria, Beckham, 45, is digitally aged to look like he is in his 70s, with a full head of greying hair, a bushy beard and deeply etched lines on his face.
Unsurprisingly, even with wrinkly skin, age spots and faded tattoos, he still looks dashing as a silver fox.
Released on Thursday, the one-minute video by Malaria No More UK starts off with an aged Beckham, speaking with a message from the future, about how the disease has been hypothetically eradicated.
As he continues, the years fall away and he is back in the present with the campaign slogan: "Malaria must die, so millions will live".
Shot in a green room with help from a company run by Hollywood director Ridley Scott, the film uses a mixture of traditional visual effects and a new proprietary technology known as Charlatan.
The face-swopping program utilises machine learning to merge faces in real time, enabling it to add decades to Beckham's face while retaining his unique characteristics.
As a father of four, Beckham says: "The fight against malaria is a cause close to my heart because the disease remains a huge killer of children and we have the opportunity to change that in our lifetime."
One of the world's oldest and deadliest diseases, malaria claims the life of a child every two minutes, according to the World Health Organisation.
It is a life-threatening tropical disease spread by mosquitoes and most deaths occur in Africa, where 250,000 children die from the disease annually.
Beckham has been involved in the organisation since 2009 and is a founding member of Malaria No More UK's leadership council.
At its launch more than a decade ago, he played tennis at Wembley Stadium over the world's longest mosquito net with tennis champ Andy Murray.
