Harlan Coben's Lazarus
Joel Lazarus (Sam Claflin) returns home after his father’s apparent suicide, confronting long-buried trauma and uncovering clues linked to his sister’s unsolved murder 25 years earlier. Based on an original story by Harlan Coben and adapted by BAFTA-winner Danny Brocklehurst, the series blends psychological tension with themes of grief, memory, and buried truths. The cast also includes Karla Crome, Alexandra Roach, David Fynn, and Kate Ashfield.
Led by Creative Director Simon Carr, Vine FX approached the de-ageing of Bill Nighy and Amanda Root with a hybrid workflow combining CG, machine learning and nuanced compositing. The priority was always to protect performance.
“Bill’s face is iconic—expressive and instantly recognisable,” said Carr. Full-CG gave technical control, but the team ultimately blended CG topology, lighting and hair with plate elements—especially eyes and mouth—to preserve micro-expressions. “The CG model looked great, but side-by-side with the plate, differences jumped out,” added CG Lead Matt McKinney.
Jake Newton, CG Lead, emphasised the philosophy: “We always blend in original elements. Those tiny tics and twitches are what make de-ageing believable.”
This project marked Vine FX’s first full-CG de-ageing pipeline. R&D Developer Peter Noble created a domain-constrained ML model trained on thousands of images and tuned specifically toward older male features, drawing on research from L'Oréal and Disney. Unreal’s Live Link Face App and FACS libraries guided facial capture, while compositing brought everything back to subtle, natural movement.
Amanda Root required a different approach—her expressive brow needed to survive the de-ageing process. Using Nuke’s CopyCat, compositors made frame-specific adjustments that preserved her performance without the need for full CG or ML.
Across all shots, the team followed one rule: the actors’ performances were sacred.
As sole VFX vendor, Vine FX delivered over 235 shots across six episodes, developing a visual identity that felt international, moody, and deliberately hard to place. “The aim was to appeal to a broad audience and avoid obvious UK or North American markers,” said Executive VFX Producer Kaitlyn Beattie. Shooting in Manchester and Liverpool gave an urban foundation, but Vine FX extended skylines, adjusted weather, and obscured location cues to create a dense, claustrophobic world.
A signature ‘hero shot’ revealed towering city extensions built to feel real but geographically ambiguous. Using Google Maps and Earth, the team grounded new CG structures in accurate scale and layout.
The psychiatric hospital, shot in a repurposed hotel, was transformed into a brutalist-meets-Art-Deco cliffside facility through extensive extensions, environmental changes, and full sea-to-cliff replacements. City scenes leaned into rain, darkness, and wet surfaces—right down to complex shots through a wiped windscreen.
Vine FX also handled a pivotal gore sequence involving a violent skull impact. The team built a full CG internal head—skull, membranes, brain matter—and simulated fragmentation and fluid behaviour. The result was graphic yet grounded, seamlessly transitioning between plate and CG.
With three directors across the series, Vine FX helped maintain visual continuity by establishing early rules and acting as the single vendor throughout post. When the schedule tightened mid-production, streamlined feedback loops and disciplined sign-off processes kept the team ahead of deadline.
“We created a clear plan and stuck to it,” said Beattie. “Frame.io annotations and focused client engagement made all the difference.”
Harlan Coben's Lazarus is streaming now on Prime Video!
