Roger Avary is the latest filmmaker to jump on the generative AI bandwagon, announcing his production company General Cinema Dynamics‘ partnership with Massive AI Studios.
The Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction co-writer recently revealed that his Texas-based banner has three AI-driven films “in active production” through the partnership, noting that he previously found it “almost impossible to get a movie going” as an indie director.
“And then I built a technology company over the last year, basically making AI movies,” he explained. “And all of the sudden, boom! Like that, money gets thrown at it. Just by attaching the word AI, and that it’s a technology-based company, all of the sudden, investors came in, and we’re in production on three films now.”
Avary added, “Just put AI in front of it, and all of the sudden, you’re in production on three features.”
The slate includes a family Christmas movie scheduled to premiere later this year, a faith-based feature for Easter 2027, and a “big romantic war epic.”
“So many people are against AI,” said Avary. “But all it is, is visual effects. And I have experience, like with that Beuwolf movie, doing it. And what used to be a million dollars a minute is now $5,000 a minute, to do it really, really well. It looks kind of amazing, actually. I think, for independent cinema, and for the future of film and television production, these are super exciting times.”
Avary’s pivot to AI comes after Darren Aronofsky’s studio Primordial Soup released their AI-animated Revolutionary War series On This Day … 1776 on Time‘s YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) are introducing a bill that would require companies to file a notice with the Register of Copyrights that detail the copyrighted works used to train datasets for an AI model. The Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting Act has been endorsed by SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America west and east, the Directors Guild of America and more.
The bill stops short of requiring AI companies license copyrighted works for use in training models, something that is the subject of multiple lawsuits brought by authors and creators. That question also is touched upon in litigation brought by Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Co. and NBC Universal against Midjourney.
