Hollywoods covert race to produce the first AI blockbuster with Scorsese, Affleck involved

Hollywood is secretly full throttle on Artificial Intelligence, creating a “new space race” to generate the first (mostly) AI blockbuster.The film industry is notoriously slow to adopt change.Some directors refuse to swap 35mm film for digital, others feel using CGI or blue screen “compromises their art.”Therefore, AI has officially been met with extreme skepticism by more entrenched filmmakers.

However — as is always the way in two-faced, back-biting, cutthroat Hollywood — that also means behind the scenes, every studio, filmmaker, and screenwriter worth their salt are desperately trying to harness its power to push the boundaries and create something new to wow audiences with.“The space race was about being first, but it was also about inspiring the world that we should keep competing and keep investing [in the technology].Bigger than being first, which is fleeting, is inspiring the world,” Bryn Mooser, who has two Academy Award nominations for documentary shorts, told The Post.Although completely AI-generated movies have been made, so far they have tended to be low-budget or online-only affairs created by ambitious and talented people, but unlikely to score a spot at your local multiplex anytime soon.However, household names are testing the waters and teasing their involvement with AI, which sources say probably goes much further than they are letting on.In 2025, legendary director Martin Scorsese aligned with the German AI company Black Forest Labs to use its technology, announcing it would be part of pre-production and creating storyboards.“I’m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences,” he somewhat cryptically told the New York Times.Traditionalists were outraged that the man who previously labored over hand-drawn boards for movies like “Raging Bull,” painstakingly sketching boxing fight scenes so their ra...