In his nearly 30-year career, Alex Proyas has only directed eight features, including “Dark City,” “The Crow,” “I, Robot,” and “Knowing.” He hasn’t helmed anything since his 2016 bomb “Gods of Egypt,” which earned him the Razzie for Worst Director.
For decades Proyas has been trying to make “Heaven,” a sci-fi satire along the lines of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil.” One problem: the budget was way too high, reaching the $80–$100M mark, and giving a filmmaker like Proyas that kind of money just could not happen.
Enter Ex Machina Studios, in partnership with K5 International, who are teaming up to revive Proyas’ passion project, which will be introduced to buyers at the upcoming Cannes market. The film could mark a return to directing for Proyas.
“Heaven” will be an “AI-assisted” sci-fi film that follows a desperate bureaucrat who escapes his collapsing real life by entering a technologically perfected afterlife, only to discover that paradise is an elaborate illusion with disturbing consequences.
The film will be produced using Ex Machina Studios’ proprietary AI tools, which the company says can help build large-scale worlds at controlled budgets while still prioritizing human actors. Proyas is now aiming to realize the project through this new production model, with filming expected to be based in Los Angeles and casting currently underway.
Now, based on what Ex Machina seems to be about, I presume the AI will be used primarily as a tool to help realize the film’s large-scale environments at a more controlled budget. According to Ex Machina Studios, their proprietary system is designed to generate “expansive worlds,” which this film clearly needs.
I’ve noticed a trend recently: filmmakers using AI to spearhead passion projects they would otherwise not be able to greenlight. It’s not just Proyas. Roger Avary, Steven Soderbergh, Mathieu Kassovitz, Robert Rodriguez, Paul Schrader. Hell, even Michael Mann is looking to potentially use AI to tamp down costs on his upcoming, and very pricey, “Heat 2.”
Danny Boyle tells Vanity Fair that AI was used to animate old photographs—which means Margaret Thatcher and the Kray brothers—and to create mice running around the newsroom.