I’ve noticed a trend recently: filmmakers using AI to try and spearhead passion projects they otherwise wouldn’t be able to greenlight. Alex 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.”
Hey, not everyone has the luxury Guillermo del Toro has, backed by the full-scale Netflix machine, of greenlighting whatever $100M+ projects he pitches to the streamer. Filmmakers are inherently desperate artists who, when push comes to shove, would absolutely cut corners to make their projects happen.
Brad Pitt agrees with that sentiment; he isn’t entirely opposed to AI in movies. In fact, he thinks it could end up being a useful tool for getting something Hollywood has increasingly struggled to finance: the mid-budget film.
The Oscar-winning actor discussed AI in a new Esquire interview, specifically its potential to make expensive visual effects more affordable and, in turn, help more modestly budgeted productions get off the ground.
“There’s a lot of pushback against AI, but AI is going to be the very thing that, if used as a tool, is going to help these mid-budget films, $40 to 90 million-budgeted films, get made,” Pitt said.
Pitt goes on to call the growing use of AI in filmmaking “a very interesting experiment.”
Pitt’s comments carry some weight considering what he’s been doing with Plan B for years. The production company has backed filmmakers and projects that might not have found much support from the major studios, including films from Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”), Andrew Dominik (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”), Adam McKay (“The Big Short”), James Gray (“The Lost City of Z”), and Terrence Malick (“The Tree of Life”).
So Pitt isn’t exactly talking about the mid-budget movie from the sidelines. He’s spent years helping filmmakers get these kinds of ambitious, director-driven projects made. Forget about AI actors — which Pitt is justifiably, and very openly, opposed to. The main use of AI in Hollywood will be, and already is, VFX, which can bring down production costs without completely killing what makes these movies special.
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