Personalized AI movies are every cinema fan’s nightmare

Joe Russo knows what makes a movie good. What works and what doesn’t. At least one would think so. After all, together with his brother Anthony, he not only shot some of the best Marvel films (including Captain America 2 and Endgame). He also produces action blockbusters on the assembly line for streaming services. Citadel is currently a kind of serial version of James Bond running on Amazon. Tyler Rake: Extraction 2 with Chris Hemsworth will follow later this year for Netflix.

Speaking to entertainment site Collider, the director and producer opened up about how he feels the future of film and television introduces. And unfortunately designed a scenario that sounds as hostile to life and fun as Thanos’ plan to wipe out half of all life: the possibility of using artificial intelligence to simply put together exactly the film or series that you feel like doing.

You say to the streaming platform, ‘I want a movie with my photorealistic avatar and Marilyn Monroe.’ […] And suddenly you have a rom-com with yourselfwhich is 90 minutes long.

Sounds like the kind of sci-fi future we’re all waiting for? Incorrect. In fact, it would be an absolute nightmare for anyone who loves movies and series. There are three reasons for this:

Reason 1: This horror vision combines the worst of fan fiction and deepfake porn

Leaving aside for a moment, in Joe Russo’s example, Marilyn Monroe continues to be objectified and sexualized well after her death. (A theme the Netflix film Blonde not only picks up on, but also continues.) Away from people whose careers have been characterized by transgression, personalized stories based on real people would be highly problematic. Because the actor or actress with whom you create your very own story cannot agree to the scenarios you have come up with.

This has already been criticized for fan fiction, especially erotic ones. Add moving images and you have deepfake videos that are already being misused to create pornographic content or putting words into the mouths of real people that they never said. The only way to solve this is to limit personalization to a few scenarios that all potentially involved parties have agreed to. Although the actors can of course never know who will let everything be transferred into their arms.

Reason 2: Self-made films with AI kill everything that makes films and series so good

Making every single decision about a film or series may sound exciting at first, but it means that we only get what we already know. After all, we can’t wish for anything we don’t already know. No more surprises, nothing uncomfortable, nothing ingenious. Who would seriously want that? Well, except for people who care less about content and more about well-calculated content that can be sold at high prices and at assembly-line production speeds to TV networks, production companies and streaming providers?

Watch the trailer for Joe Russo’s new Amazon series Citadel here:

Quite apart from the fact that artificial intelligence (at least so far) no room for ingenuity and really new things has: Asks an AI a question and it responds with a version of what it was fed. Ask David Cronenberg what scenario he has in mind for his next film, and you get meat stools and plastic-eating people who, instead of having sex, pick at open wounds, saying something about gender, identity, and pollution.

Reason 3: Personalized storytelling makes you lonely – and despite all the sci-fi euphoria it destroys the industry

However, building something “own” with building blocks from existing storylines and people is not only boring and encroaching on the people who become characters in your film fantasies without being asked. It raises a whole different problem: if we all just watch personalized stuff, we no longer have a collective viewing experience to share about afterwards.

That means: no fan theories. No film review. And no pop culture controversy with a story that millions of people have experienced at the same time. No award ceremonies where the best, most touching, most visionary titles are honored. Just one-person peep islands for a society that almost broke up due to the isolation of Corona.

Anyone who is positive about such a future has never loved film. Or thinks you can make even more money with interchangeable content without a soul than you already do.

Joe Russo’s Citadel and more from Amazon, Netflix and Co. in the podcast

Need fresh streaming tips? You can find the most exciting series that you can stream on Netflix, Prime Video, Sky, Disney+ and more in April here in the monthly preview:

We have checked the long starting lists of the streaming services and present you the 20 big highlights of the month in the Moviepilot podcast stream trawl. Included are Amazon’s second most expensive series in the world, the acclaimed crime hit Poker Face, the return of Grey’s Anatomy and the final seasons of Succession and Barry on Sky.

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