Ex Machina Studios, and you’ll be hearing a lot from them in the coming year, have struck an exclusive North American theatrical distribution agreement with Mayfair Media Group, helmed by Galaxy Theatres, for their two big AI-generated movies.
Roger Avary’s “Paradise Lost” and Alex Proyas’ “Heaven” will get wide releases next year, on 1,500+ screens, and not just in Galaxy theaters, but in other theater chains as well, which were secured after they were shown footage from the films.
This is a historic moment for AI filmmaking. The wide rollouts will be the closest attempt yet to legitimize the technology in movies — but will moviegoers show up to see these films?
Avary, the Oscar-winning “Pulp Fiction” co-writer and “The Rules of Attraction” director, is directing “Paradise Lost” (March 2027) for Ex Machina Studios, a biblical epic based on John Milton’s 1667 work, which has repeatedly proven difficult to adapt due to its dense themes and enormous narrative scale. The poem spans cosmic events such as the battle in Heaven and the origins of creation, and earlier attempts to bring it to film — including a Warner Bros. project that at one point had Proyas attached to direct, with Bradley Cooper set to star — ultimately stalled.
The film will use AI for its “expansive worlds to be realized,” while preserving real actors. No cast or production start dates have been announced yet, though the film is still expected to carry an “ambitious budget” for an independent production.
Meanwhile, Proyas’ “Heaven” (summer 2027) will also be an “AI-assisted” 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.
In his nearly 30-year career, Alex Proyas has directed only eight films, 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–$100 million mark, and giving a past-his-prime filmmaker like Proyas that kind of money just couldn’t happen. Ex Machina Studios has now made that dream a reality.
That’s the connection between Proyas and Avary: two filmmakers who haven’t been able to get projects greenlit, and now, with nothing to lose, they’re diving into AI filmmaking.
Bayona hasn't directed a feature since “Society of the Snow,” his 2023 Oscar nominee. His résumé also includes “The Orphanage,” “The Impossible,” and “A Monster Calls.”