The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in series and film production is inevitable because studios see it as a tool that can reduce production costs and is faster than regular CGI techniques. Most recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that Disney stopped efforts to use generative AI in two of their films due to fear of criticism.
Generative AI technology developed by Metaphysic was tested during the production of the live-action film Moana. The original plan was to paste Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s face onto his cousin Tanoai Reed’s face to reduce his time on set and reduce production costs since he is one of the most expensive actors in the world.
The use of body doubles in production is not new, but pasting an actor’s face using generative AI has never been done before. The regular CGI used in Fast & Furious 7 to paste the late Paul Walker’s face onto his younger brother’s body cost $50 million. A very high cost because the entire film cost $250 million.
Next, a character generated by generative AI was also planned for the science fiction film Tron: Ares. The characters will be voiced by human actors but the animation will be done entirely by AI. The show was canceled due to issues involving the voice actors and the use of AI, which led to a strike organized by SAG-AFTRA. At the same time, the bad publicity if Disney uses generative AI is seen as too great a risk.
Disney's concerns are justified because after using generative AI for the title sequence of the Secret Invasion series two years ago, they were heavily criticized for being stingy despite profiting from their own Marvel IP.
Netflix has already used generative AI in the production of the series Eternauts without any criticism, perhaps because it was a series produced in Argentina. The Runway AI model was used to generate these special effects. At the same time, Amazon invested in the streaming platform Showrunner, whose entire content is generated by generative AI.