Beloved filmmaker Danny Boyle is suddenly playing with fire while promoting his new film, Ink, after confirming his movie about the launch of The Sun newspaper uses AI. How egregious are we talking? Let’s find out.
30 Seconds of Controversy
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Boyle says he used about 30 seconds of generative AI to make his new movie. Ink recently opened at the Venice Film Festival before screening at Telluride. Before we light the torches, let’s hear what Boyle had to say about applying generative AI to his new film:
“There’s about 30 seconds of it in our movie where we animate a couple of old photographs,” Boyle confessed. “Oh, and there’s some mice,” he added. “It’s very good for animals, and we had some mice that run around The Sun newsroom.”
Reanimating the Past (and Some Mice)
While 30 seconds doesn’t seem like a long time, and mice scurrying around an office is hardly a focal point of the film, are these instances enough to enrage keyboard warriors and fans? The short answer is yes. Because the internet is a hellscape of our own making, people are already flocking to social media to rake Boyle over the coals for using AI to reanimate old images of the Kray brothers and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
What Is Ink Actually About?
Set in 1969, Ink focuses on a rising media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce), who acquires the daily newspaper “The Sun” and, with his partner, editor Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell), turns it into Britain’s most influential tabloid. Claire Foy also stars.
Is AI the Future of Entertainment?
While on the subject of AI, Vanity Fair asked Boyle what he thinks about the technology in general, to which he responded: “It doesn’t really matter what I think about AI. It matters what 20-year-olds think about it. Is the honest truth. My opinion of it is that it’s a very useful tool in many ways, provided you use it respectfully and provided you pay actors if you’re going to replace them with some kind of AI embodiment.”
Boyle also admits he isn’t interested in angering the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) gods, who, when he was making 28 Days Later, gave him guff for using real chimpanzees in his film. He’s tried his damndest not to use real animals in filmmaking since incurring their wrath.
Slippery Slope or Much Ado About Nothing?
Is this too much fuss for 30 seconds worth of AI? Or, is Danny Boyle walking too close to the slippery slope? AI is an incredibly hot-button topic right now and will likely remain so for years to come, as CEOs and tech bros continue to present it as the future of entertainment. Are you bummed to hear that Danny Boyle’s been bitten by the AI bug? Let us know in the comments section below.
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