A director who has made films in some of the biggest franchises in the world just came out as a strong advocate of artificial intelligence in filmmaking. Gareth Edwards, the director of Godzilla, Rogue One, and Jurassic World Rebirth, said at an event this week that he is excited about using generative AI in filmmaking but, of course, has a few caveats.
“I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t become interested in this stuff as a filmmaker,” Edwards said at an Amazon event called “AI on the Lot” in Los Angeles, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be better than CGI. I’m excited. I hope you are.”
Not really, Gareth.
The director did go on to explain that, at least, he doesn’t want to use it in the film itself. Just in its development. “It has no taste whatsoever,” Edwards continued. “It is a fucking genius at helping you. I view it like having a second-unit director who is a billionaire on acid. Like, it’ll do anything you ask, not a problem. Sometimes it’ll [go] batshit crazy. And you’ll give it notes, and it’ll be like, ‘I don’t do notes. I’ll just do something totally different.’ But it’s worth it.”
Is it though? Is it really worth it? Where is it getting those ideas from, we wonder? Is it stealing them from original movies like, we don’t know, The Creator or Monsters? It’s not just grabbing ideas out of nowhere, right?
“It’s only good for iteration and discovering what the movie should be, and then once you know what it is, go in and start making it your movie,” Edwards added. Oh, okay. We’re sure that’s where it would stop.
At least Edwards is right in that he admits that neither he nor anyone else really knows what the future of AI holds. “We don’t know where it’s going to go,” he said. “I think anybody saying they know exactly what’s going to happen over the next five years is just a liar.” But most people who make movies would say that stealing ideas from others to help you come up with new ideas isn’t the best. Even if it’s happening through a computer program.
We’ll see how this plays out for Edwards in the future. Especially if he is, as rumored, tapped to direct a sequel to Jurassic World Rebirth. Are Universal and Steven Spielberg really going to be okay with AI coming up with ideas for that?
Or maybe we’re just being short-sighted. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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