Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of "The Artist" and a Cannes competition regular ("The Search," "Redoubtable," "The Most Precious of Cargoes"), has just wrapped production on his latest film, "The Third Hand." And it turns out AI played a significant role in getting it made.
That's according to Vincent Maraval, the veteran CEO of French sales and production powerhouse Goodfellas, who revealed that AI shaved eight days off the shoot of one of the film's major scenes.
The premise is bizarre: a young French soldier is wounded in battle during WWI and wakes up in the laboratory of a mad scientist who has grafted a German hand onto his abdomen. Sure, why not. Bérénice Bejo, Rebecca Marder and François Civil star.
"[The film] starts on the battlefield in the First World War," Maraval explained. "Without AI, it's ten days of shooting. With it, it's two days."
When pressed on the jobs that were likely lost in the process, Maraval didn't flinch. "It's the director's choice," he said, arguing that the technology lets filmmakers tell stories they otherwise wouldn't have the means to tell. "If we use AI to open our creativity and imagination, it will help," he added, noting it could also make films "more profitable."
Here's the thing, though. Hazanavicius has practically had a reserved seat on the Croisette for the last decade and a half, and "The Third Hand" sounds tailor-made for a competition slot next May. But would Cannes actually take that risk? The AI conversation is only getting more heated, and putting a film in competition that openly replaced eight days of battlefield shooting with AI would be a statement.
My guess is the festival's love for Hazanavicius runs deep, but don't be surprised if this one ends up out of competition, or at another festival entirely, just to sidestep the backlash.
Much as it did with film, The New York Times has conducted a massive poll of more than 500 "stars, showrunners and other TV insiders," including critics, to come up with "The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century."