Doug Liman‘s upcoming Bitcoin movie, starring Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, Gal Gadot, and Isla Fisher, will feature appearances by major figures from the political and technological worlds. These include Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Eric Trump. Of course, it won’t actually be them, but Deadline reports that AI enhancement will be used so the actors who portrayed these characters on camera look more like the real deal.
Bitcoin, formally titled Killing Satoshi, is a conspiracy thriller that follows “a man’s quest to prove he created Bitcoin, a claim that puts his life in peril and sets off a high-stakes race between tech billionaires and world leaders with the financial system hanging in the balance.” The film has been raising interest (or outrage) due to its use of AI technology. Instead of real-world locations, the sets are entirely made of AI backgrounds.
Deadline’s report states that Zuckerberg and Trump will have the most lines of these AI-enhanced figures. The production has also reportedly done its due diligence with lawyers, with the project falling under satire.
Liman and producer Ryan Kavanaugh have previously said that they will use AI to “adjust” some performances, which is definitely going to rub some people the wrong way. That said, it was confirmed from the beginning that this would be a big AI experiment, so hopefully most of the folks involved knew what they were getting into. I’m very curious to see how this one turns out.
“I love David and Goliath stories,” Liman said in a statement when the project was announced. “Killing Satoshi follows unlikely antiheroes taking on the most powerful people on the planet in an epic battle that strikes at the core of what is money and who controls it. I’m so excited to be collaborating with Casey Affleck again opposite the incredible Pete Davidson.“
Kavanaugh added, “This is not just a movie about Bitcoin and its elusive and mysterious origins but really about what it stands for. We look at this film much the same way as we did with ‘Social Network’ and its examination of Facebook. This should equally be a look into the world of what Bitcoin really is.”