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AI Movies

Avengers' Joe Russo Says Movies Soon Will Be Made By AI (collider.com) 126

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Joe Russo, the co-director of Avengers: Endgame, in an interview on the impact he thinks AI is going to play out in the world of video games, movies and television. He said: This is like a mind-bending question, right? I mean, we've had conversations about how it can be used, and look, Gen Z is very unique because it's a generation that has -- If there were incremental movements in technology over the last, say, 100 years, 150 years, they were the first generation with an exponential movement, right? So there's a real possibility now for technology to become a really important factor in our lives because it's been embraced by Gen Z, and they grew up with it, they understand it, they know how to use it. That's important, right? We're not in a world where, you know, your uncle doesn't know how to send emails anymore. We're in a world where the entire generation has a facile expertise in it, and is also not afraid of it.

So potentially, what you could do with it is obviously use it to engineer storytelling and change storytelling. So you have a constantly evolving story, either in a game or in a movie, or a TV show. You could walk into your house and save the AI on your streaming platform. âoeHey, I want a movie starring my photoreal avatar and Marilyn Monroe's photoreal avatar. I want it to be a rom-com because I've had a rough day," and it renders a very competent story with dialogue that mimics your voice. It mimics your voice, and suddenly now you have a rom-com starring you that's 90 minutes long. So you can curate your story specifically to you.

That's one thing that it can do, but it can also, on a communal level, populate the world of the game, have intelligence behind character choice, you know, the computer-run characters in the game that can make decisions learn your play style, make it a little harder for you, make it a little easier for you, curate the story. Say you want Fortnite to be more of a horror game, right? Then you could ask the AI to ramp up the horror elements of it. So again, you could curate your experience.I think that's where it's going. How quickly we get there, I don't know, but that's where it's going.
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Avengers' Joe Russo Says Movies Soon Will Be Made By AI More

Avengers' Joe Russo Says Movies Soon Will Be Made By AI

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  • With any luck... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:10AM (#63475082)

    Maybe AI will do a better job than the hacks that currently deliver re-skin after re-skin of comic book superhero movies that are basically just 2 hours of explosions and CGI.

    • Re:With any luck... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dargaud ( 518470 ) <slashdot2@nOSpaM.gdargaud.net> on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:13AM (#63475096) Homepage
      Well, guess what the AIs will be trained on ? It's not like they are gonna invent out of thin air. So good luck enjoying Avengers 26...

      • Depends on how diverse the media can ultimately be that it gets trained on. I mean, if it's just movies, then yeah, you're probably right in what you're implying... but what if it's also (for your Avengers example) the entire history of the relevant comics? Avengers 26 might be pretty interesting.

        • but what if it's also (for your Avengers example) the entire history of the relevant comics?

          Perhaps, but what will absolutely be included in training is box office return. Find the MCU movies that brought in top dollar, that's getting weighted heavy. Just like social media that weighs on "interactions", what could possibly go wrong?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Depends on how diverse the media can ultimately be that it gets trained on. I mean, if it's just movies, then yeah, you're probably right in what you're implying... but what if it's also (for your Avengers example) the entire history of the relevant comics? Avengers 26 might be pretty interesting.

          AI recursion, because your "movie AI" for comic book movies will be trained on comic book movies and comic books. But your "comic book AI" will be trained on comic books and comic book movies.

          So Avengers 26 will fe

      • As long as they aren't also trained on Hallmark movies.

        Lonely woman moves from the big city to a farm in the country. She meets Mr. Amazing when she enters a county geranium-growing contest. Just as her prized flowers are ready to take to the fair for judging, Berzerker 7 comes along and destroys her beloved plants with all kinds of explosions and lasers. She mistakenly thinks Mr. Awesome is somehow behind the attack. Brokenhearted, she shuns him, though he keeps trying to win her back. Finally, Ironman sav

    • It's trained on hollywood blockbusters, so it too will vomit out 2 hours of CGI and explosions. You're doomed.

      • This kinda reminds me of the old 80's move Looker [imdb.com].

        But this is on steroids....just scan the people you want in....AI moves and voices them.

        Then, ditch the person so you don't have to pay royalties.

        If someone did this today with taking photos while you are in public, and AI's you...would they have to pay you?

      • Only if they're trained on today's blockbusters. Consider what would be the result if they were trained on action/adventure blockbusters from Hollywood's golden age, when they didn't have CGI or some of the other effects that they have now. What do you think an AI would come up with if it were trained on The Longest Day, How the West was Won, Around the World in 80 Days, The Ten Commandments and The Wizard of Oz?

        • What do you think an AI would come up with if it were trained on The Longest Day, How the West was Won, Around the World in 80 Days, The Ten Commandments and The Wizard of Oz?

          A war movie set entirely within a saloon with a large globe decorated with little moving ships being chased by a tornado while lecturing you about what a poor human being it thinks you are.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by vadim_t ( 324782 )

      I think that's not entirely unlikely!

      The point of doing a movie with AI is making it drastically cheaper. If you can get a movie done for $30M instead of $300M, maybe that makes it a bit more viable to take some risks.

      When you spend $300M on something you need to be sure it won't flop, and that means doing a bland plot that's palatable and understandable world-wide.

    • ...re-skin of comic book superhero movies that are basically just 2 hours of explosions and CGI.

      Yeah... that way we can nitpick how they didn't follow the source material! /s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      It's not so far-fetched to believe movies like the Avengers will be totally AI generated in the near future, because in a way blockbuster movies already are made by a machine. Corporations are legal machines; people are the hardware and the rules, policies and incentives that govern the corporation are the software. As movies become ever more vast and expensive, they feel less and less like personal artistic statements. *The Avengers* was not a great movie, although many *components* of the movie were gre

  • Fanciful predictions about future technology are always just that.
    I'll believe it when I see it.
    Right now we're still at the stage where AI can barely stitch together a show about nothing without going off the rails
    ( https://www.twitch.tv/watchmef... [twitch.tv] )

    • If you want to see a highly imaginative vision of the future, find a copy of Just Imagine [wikipedia.org], a 1930 musical set in 1980. If they got anything right, I didn't notice it, but it's great light entertainment. Not only that, there's a scene of dancing girls cavorting around and on a giant idol that was used as stock footage in the original Flash Gordon serial and even got into the opening title sequence.
  • Sounds like a bet you can't lose.

  • Facile (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:26AM (#63475126)

    Love the backhanded compliment.

    "We're in a world where the entire generation has a facile expertise in it, and is also not afraid of it"

    Facile (Oxford): " appearing neat and comprehensive only by ignoring the true complexities of an issue; superficial."

    This is in line with my view. Your child is not smart and "good with technology" because they can use an iPad. A bunch of people, a lot of them with gray hair, did such a good job making a usable device that your stupid child can use it.

    • Re:Facile (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @10:31AM (#63475242)

      It's not just "your stupid child." We have an entire generation or more that don't understand the tiniest bit of what's happening under the covers. I grew up needing to develop the programs I used on old hardware, so as systems advanced, I at least have a fundamental understanding that files exist, what a database is, how memory is addressed, and so on. Whereas the younger generations just see a device and expect it "to work," without any real understanding at all. Didn't we just have some stories in the last few months about how a lot of kids don't understand filesystems, or how to organize them, since "the system takes care of that for them?"

      We've got at least a full generation, probably more, that are way TOO comfortable with machines, and way, WAY, too trusting of machines with no fundamental understanding of what they are, how much work went into making them, or how badly and spectacularly they can fail when they do. They have absolute faith in them, as if they were a religion unto themselves and the machines are their god. Every story about self-driving cars is filled to the brim with true believers telling anyone with doubts that humans are worse than machines, with all sorts of "but but but" when people point out we simply don't have the data to back that up yet. AI won't have to be that good to impress this generation of people. They already believe in the inherent superiority of machines. Human = shit. Machine = god. Meanwhile, those of us that grew up developing our own systems know that the machines, up to and including now, are only as good as the people behind them. And that self-driving and the current version of AI take A LOT of people, and in some cases a lot of funding, and corners absolutely *WILL* be cut anywhere a company involved sees the opportunity to save money.

      As much as I don't want to see the machines in charge, I fear these people combined with the onslaught of AI idiocy that barely qualifies as an overly overcomplex database search, will lead us into a very dangerous spot. But, there's little we can do to stop it. The ball is rolling downhill already. We're just not sure where it will end up landing just yet.

      • Whereas the younger generations just see a device and expect it "to work," without any real understanding at all. Didn't we just have some stories in the last few months about how a lot of kids don't understand filesystems, or how to organize them, since "the system takes care of that for them?"

        I actually think this is great. The computer as appliance is a terrific evolution. But it does mean that the ability to use a computer is no more impressive than the ability to set up ARC on a television. Perhaps less so. My mother doesn't need to know where her outlook PST file is - and she needs to know even less about how her phone stores emails.

        • Whereas the younger generations just see a device and expect it "to work," without any real understanding at all. Didn't we just have some stories in the last few months about how a lot of kids don't understand filesystems, or how to organize them, since "the system takes care of that for them?"

          I actually think this is great. The computer as appliance is a terrific evolution. But it does mean that the ability to use a computer is no more impressive than the ability to set up ARC on a television. Perhaps less so. My mother doesn't need to know where her outlook PST file is - and she needs to know even less about how her phone stores emails.

          While I see zero problem with that, the problem lies in the prognosticators that have lived with "it just works" long enough to believe the machines completely infallible. I've watched the business world go from, "Machines are the devil," to, "machines are alright in moderation," to, "gotta have all the computers all the time," to, "HOLY SHIT, MORE MACHINES LESS HUMANS OMG!" in my lifetime, and the faith-based version of this reality is frighteningly unappealing to those who know what's going on behind the

          • I guess, but the paper-thin assumption of infallibility is what lets us drive cars, get on planes, or pay our bills online. Even when it's demonstrably false, it's still useful illusion.

    • Your child is not smart and "good with technology" because they can use an iPad

      Most parent with young and not so young children grew up with tech, I can't image they think that, this world doesn't exist anymore.

  • exponential movement in technology? (Score:3)

    by zmollusc ( 763634 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:26AM (#63475130)

    What exponential movement in technology would this be? And where are these gen Z who know how to use it?
    Gen Z certainly know how to be used by it.

  • Self-insert fanfic ahoy! (Score:3)

    by Zarhan ( 415465 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:28AM (#63475136)

    So...if you do not have enough imagination to play an RPG, or enough skill to write fanfic, you can then ask an AI to make you a Mary Sue character and render it out.

    I can see the appeal. Hey, I want a 3-hour movie about a network engineer who fights crime.

    • I can see the appeal. Hey, I want a 3-hour movie about a network engineer who fights crime.

      Hackers version of Cobra Kai: they're now all in their 50s except Mr The Plague who's 70. Tell me you wouldn't watch that.

    • The demand is clearly there as that's basically the premise and depth of every narrative about some normal seeming guy who turns out to be a super guy once his latent super-ness is revealed to the world.

  • Rights to likeness (Score:3)

    by TWX ( 665546 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:36AM (#63475146)

    I fully expect that lawsuits governing rights to likeness to ensue.

    If I understand the nature of what actors in franchises sign away, it's typically for the company to use their likenesses for things like toy lines and other materials that are secondary to the actual motion pictures, and that they generally retain the rights to their own likenesses when it comes to new work, meaning that the studio cannot simply generate their own faux-actor that looks just like the original actor to portray the character going forward, they either have to hire the actor again, or they have to negotiate a new license with the actor to use the actor's appearance.

    And I don't think that this is unfair either. Even in a Big-Budget Special Effects Extravaganza the quality of the acting contributes to how well the franchise endures. At some point all the fancy FX in the world don't overcome a weak cast. Even for entirely animated movies, the voice-actors performances are critical. If the actual acted performances are lackluster then odds are pretty good that the franchise will be weak or will close down entirely.

    So it would make sense that at least for sequels, movie production would require either actors, or actors being compensated for the use of their likenesses even if they're no longer involved but the characters based on their looks and performances still are.

    I could well see entirely original films made with entirely generated content, including voices. But that doesn't mean that these will replace conventional movies. After all, there's still an industry for live stage performances to the extent that many productions even still tour.

    • The hype and the glamor is a huge part of what gets people excited about the movies. What AI will replace is going to be all the other people that work on the movie. Along with background characters and extras and stuff like that. That stuff's still a huge part of the budget.

      • Background actors who don't need to interact with the main cast are going to get AI'd out of existence.

        A big problem with real people is they screw up, or just do a less than perfect job. That's why multiple takes are common. And then later the director and editor piece things together from multiple takes into one. Each take has to have all the background actors and every prop they interact with match on the resulting timeline or there can be noticeable continuity errors... those errors all go away if yo

  • Only AI will be able to learn to enjoy such movies.

    And the shitty boomergenxmillenials will blame gen z for killing the movie industry for being unable to connect with AI created films.

  • Money (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:44AM (#63475158)

    Certainly will be cheaper. No paying expensive Hollywood stars. No expensive shoot locations, insurance, expensive camera equipment, or paying for high-dollar special effects and the people who create them.

    In a few years, you'll simply sit down and say, "Show me a 2 hour and 10 minute movie about aliens who fight epic battles, in the style of Dickens, and wear fancy hats." and it'll be provided. You'll be able to adjust and modify the plot as you go, and if you like it, you can have the sequel the following day when you have time. Certainly not hard to imagine given where AI is currently at.

    • I think the commoditization of generic content will actually inflate the value of whatever is nonfungible. For example, pro athletes are making more $$$ than ever because what they do is nonfungible. You can't become Lebron James by swiping a credit card or pushing some buttons.

      • What Lebron can do right now is only unique because other tech hasn't gotten to where it could replace him. His value increasing has nothing to do with the fact other tech can't. If that were true, then Jordan's value wouldn't have increased as it has since he retired.

        Part of the value a sports player has over a movie star, is that people likely value that their abilities are human. While most of the time, we won't watch sports events in person, we never watch a movie in person. Does it truly matter if a re

    • I expect generative AI to reach a ceiling far lower than most imagine. There will be a new AI winter.

  • >>Hey, I want a movie starring my photoreal avatar and Marilyn Monroe's photoreal avatar. I want it to be a rom-com because I've had a rough day

    A rom-com? Anyone requesting a movie featuring themselves and Marilyn Monroe is after a hardcore porno.
    Seriously though, does anyone want to see a movie staring themselves? Most actors don't even watch their own movies. Unless it is interactive, in which case it's not really a movie, it's a videogame.

    • >does anyone want to see a movie staring themselves? Most actors don't even watch their own movies.

      One assumes the AI will also make me better looking and tweak my voice so it sounds how I hear it rather than how everyone else hears it. And AI-me will definitely be smoother, and more physically capable.

      I'd watch that. My wife might not appreciate me putting her on the screen though - whether I change her avatar or not, it won't go well for me.

    • The interview excerpt gives more insight into Joe Russo than the future of media production.

    • does anyone want to see a movie staring themselves

      I suspect that would be a highly "tuned" version of themself. A profile of good looks, no flab, resonant voice, genius comic timing and with a full head of hair!
      Basically, the same AI generated profile of themself that they will use on dating sites, if they don't already do that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

        Mona laughing to herself as a guy was scanned for a new suit and he didn't seem to notice the enhanced 'reflection' on the full size screen that showed him how various suits would look on him.

  • design a AI that will watch these movies for me

  • to be fair (Score:4, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Tuesday April 25, 2023 @09:46AM (#63475166) Journal

    ....have you seen Marvel movies?

    I'm pretty sure ChatGPT *today* could write those scripts and those plots.

    I mean it's
    (medium setpiece scene with explosions, deafening music, etc)
    title sequence
    trivial dialogue. Insert random quips. Reference something from last film. Product placement set A.
    (giant setpiece scene with explosions, deafening music, etc)
    narrative connection transition from first major battle to second. Additional quips. Product placement set B
    (giant setpiece scene with explosions, deafening music, etc)
    narrative connection transition from first major battle to second. Engage full quip-delivery. Ensure all A-listers have had contractually-agreed screen time agreements filled. Product placement set C
    (giant setpiece scene with explosions, deafening music, etc and BOSS FIGHT)
    open ended narrative dialogue implying next film. Closing quips.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JMZero ( 449047 )

      Meh - the beats are very easy to see in most Marvel movies, but they're hardly the only movies sticking to a formula.

      People like movies that follow certain structures. Even "serious" movies hew pretty close to the established lines. Hell, even biographies are contorted to have the normal beats at the normal times. This is not new or a secret. If you want to learn what the standard structures are, and what the beats' "proper names" are, you can read stuff here - https://savethecat.com/beat-sh... [savethecat.com]

      If you're

    • "What do you want me to be?"
      "Don't be a dick!"

      Yay. That's no longer a scene, it's the plot description.

  • "Gen Z is very unique because it's a generation that has..."

    Lost me right there... I'm not going to waste time reading something written by someone with such a shallow grasp of the English language.

    "Unique" is an absolute... there are no shades of unique, something is either unique or it's not.

    Sigh!

    • Well, but they got the apostrophe right, so partial credit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Theoretically, that's true of many adjectives: "absolute", "binary", "original", "true", "complete", "flawed", "optimal", "instantaneous", "atomic", "unbreakable", "fluid", the list goes on and on. Language being what it is, however, all of these terms are commonly used with adverbs like "more" or "less", and somehow, fluent speakers of English are generally able to figure out what they mean.

    • When somebody says literally your head must explode...

      It's fine to add emphasis by restatement but that is repetitive so another word or phrase can be used. The minor error can take the place of the TONE of speech lacking in the written word.

      Literally was fine as an occasional emphasis (done over a century at least) but today it's gone so far I wonder if people know it's meaning anymore.

  • I plan to use AI to watch the movies for me. This will save a lot of time.

  • It seems Mark Zuckerberg was right about the metaverse but he missed the shot: it was not about living as an avatar in a virtual world but using AI to create stories which your avatar is a part of.

  • There's a sameness about new movie and tv offerings that really seemed like it followed some simple procedural formula. Kinda what you would get if you asked Alexa for script ideas.

  • nope (Score:2)

    by pz ( 113803 )

    I stopped reading TFS after the quote, "very unique."

  • insamuch making new movies is essentially regurgitating existing content with a new varnish on it. (where Hollywood and "AI" are largely congruent)
  • Like, 2 weeks ago.... when I read that hollywood scriptwriters were going on strike... at which time I assumed it was because.... AI.

    I've known a few minor film, video, and TV director/producers, and THEY say, there are only a handful of plot arcs. The Quest. The romantic comedy. The spy thriller. etc.. One of them went as far as to say there is only ONE plot arc. It's a template. You just fill in the specifics. Sorry, I'm too lazy and busy to offer supporting links, but the are out there.

    So "AI" is basica
  • From https://gointothestory.blcklst... [blcklst.com]:

    Screenwriters and comedians Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon are out with a new guide for hopeful screenwriters: “Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!” They talk to Renee Montagne about their book.

    Mr. GARANT: What people need to embrace and accept, if you’re going to be a writer in Hollywood, is that every single movie has the exact same structure, exactly, whether it’s

  • I'm not going to spend any money on what amounts to animated films with humans placed over CGI, and the humans probably going to be replaced soon by Generative AI characters.
    I was repelled by creepy blue aliens, riding on CGI space dragons, in a certain movie that was nothing but a 120 minute video game. As for Endgame, the less said the better.

    Also, all you kids get off my lawn and don't touch my Torino or my Zune.

  • From what I've seen of the last Marvel movies, an AI might bring more originality, flair and (dare I say) humanity to the franchise than the writers have been providing.

  • Can finally have Peter O'Toole as Gandalf and Patrick Stewart as Denethor.

    Or make that 40's Noir Lord Of The Rings like that poster someone did a few years ago.

  • I mean, what would the big film&game studios have over the little indies at that point? If AI can write, generate CGI, act, etc, we would we need the big guys? How will they differentiate themselves from the indies? I think the big guys should be very worried about the rise of AI generated content.

  • First, what we call AI now is not movie AI. There is no consciousness, no sapience, and therefore no real creativity. Real world AI is just a formula.

    The thing about formula Movies and formula TV, is that it is always good, never great. The really great movies break the formula and create new ones. So a real life AI will always follow the formula it finds (not creates) and will always create a good work, never a great one, never a bad one.

  • Maybe I can get an AI to watch this garbage for me.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Firesign Theatre, Nick Danger, Case of the Missing Yolks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • With everything else negative about AI, including the ethical implications of it, the danger of a malevolent one, the possibility of humans refusing to recognize sentience in time, there is one thing that'll be nice to see. That's the AI-made entertainment. Expand my mind, please. No more Spiderman sequels.

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