One of Hollywood’s most reliable hitmakers is betting on the industry’s least favourite collaborator: AI.
What happened: Google is investing US$75 million into indie movie studio A24 as part of a new AI research partnership between the two companies. The tie-up will include building new AI tools for film production and distribution, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The studio, which has released hits like Civil War, Marty Supreme, and Backrooms, already has its own technology arm called A24 Labs that’s building in-house AI tools, like storyboarding apps.
Why it matters: A24 and the rest of Hollywood are trying to walk a fine line between embracing AI tools (which can cut their production costs by up to 50%) and not alienating the filmmakers and audiences that have disavowed the technology as a creativity killer.
Some studios have been more upfront than others about their AI use. Just last month, Amazon’s MGM Studios launched a GenAI Creators' Fund to bankroll AI-generated animated movies (we can’t wait to not watch these).
Netflix has openly boasted about the resources it has saved using generative AI for visual effects in its shows and recently acquired Ben Affleck's AI filmmaking company, InterPositive, for ~US$600 million.
Zoom out: The Google deal is a reputational risk for A24, which has made its name producing edgier films from up-and-coming directors that bigger studios typically pass on. Its creative-over-corporate approach has earned the studio a cult following, but an AI partnership with a tech giant risks undermining that original ethos.
Kane Parsons, the director of the studio’s highest-grossing movie ever (Backrooms), described AI as "cultural and economic rot."
Bottom line: Studios adopting AI risks hundreds of thousands of jobs in the film and entertainment sector. That’s a problem for Canadian film hubs like Quebec, which has a visual effects industry that generates ~$8 billion a year.—LA
