Lionsgate Signs Deal with AI Company to ‘Save Millions’ in Film Production

Hollywood studio Lionsgate has contracted with an artificial intelligence company called Runway to develop a custom AI model to “save millions” in film production.

Even as the entertainment industry is grappling with the effect that AI could have on human crews and behind the scenes workers as well as actors in front of the camera, Lionsgate is moving ahead with the deal in an effort to have more control over the filmmaking process.

The studio says it will initially use the technology to create storyboards to help plan film shots but also hopes that it will be useful for backgrounds and special effects as the tool develops and improves, according to The Decoder.

Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns reportedly said he feels the tool with save “millions and millions of dollars” in film pre-production costs.

Runway will fully digitize Lionsgate’s entire film library and will then create a “personalized AI library” for the studio.

The AI company’s CEO, Cristóbal Valenzuela, says that its computer system is not powerful enough to generate actual movie scenes at this time, but that they are moving towards that goal down the line. Valenzuela added that the latest Gen-3 Alpha Turbo model is available via an API.

Lionsgate’s Brianna Domont — SVP, Visual Effects — says that the new tools from Runway could be a game-changer in helping to keep costs lower in film production, especially for low-budget projects.

But many of Hollywood’s actors as well as the families of legacy actors as worried that AI tools will replace human beings in entertainment. Others are rushing to contract with AI to stave off other companies from stealing a deceased actor’s image, likeness, and voice.

Several high-profile actors and directors, though, have warned that AI will lead to the total destruction of the film industry.

Actor Nicolas Cage, for instance, warned that AI will lead to theft of intellectual property and even remarked that computers are “just going to steal my body.”

Oscar-winner Sean Penn similarly blasted the idea of AI, saying in 2023 that using it will create a “human obscenity.”

Ron Nyswaner, the screenwriter of the film Philadelphia, also warned about AI this year when he said that it will create soulless dreck that will remove the possibility for artists and viewers to “think and feel.”

Producer, writer, and director James Cameron claimed that AI will lead to a Judgment Day-style cataclysm with out-of-control algorithms taking control of warfare.

Director Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame called AI bad for humanity and compared the technology to a “technical hydrogen bomb.”

Director Christopher Nolan said AI will surely reach an “Oppenheimer moment” — or a point of no return — and that people need to be “held accountable” for its development.

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