See Joseph Gordon-Levitt as young Bruce Willis in Looper

You read that headline correctly. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has reteamed with his Brick director Rian Johnson for the new sci-fi thriller Looper, in which he and Bruce Willis play the same character at different ages.

You may notice that JGL looks a little different in these newly posted pics (courtesy of Slashfilm); that’s thanks to multiple hours of make-up.

Gordon-Levitt and Willis star as a ‘looper’ in a world where time travel is possible. These ‘loopers’ are assassins tasked with killing people who have been sent back in time by mobsters (no corpse is left in the present for the police to find). Loose ends are tied up when retiring ‘loopers’ travel backwards, only to be killed by their younger selves. This is the complex issue faced by Willis when he comes face to face with Jo-Go.

Here’s hoping the trailer – set to debut online in the next few weeks – will convey the premise far better than I have above.

Looper arrives in Australian cinemas October 18, 2012.

Discuss: Intrigued?