Fall: Deepfake-style technology was used to remove F-bombs from thriller

Director Scott Mann’s thriller Fall, which stars Grace Caroline Currey (a.k.a. Grace Fulton, Shazam!) and Virginia Gardner (Halloween 2018) as a pair of characters who get stuck at the top of a 2000 foot tall radio tower, is set to reach theatres this Friday, August 12th. It looks like it could make for a fun, exciting time in the theatre… and now it turns out there’s a game you can play while watching the movie as well. Let’s call it Spot the Missing F-Bombs, because Variety reports that Deepfake-style technology was used to remove more than thirty F-bombs from the movie so it could secure a PG-13 rating.

When Fall first caught the attention of distributor Lionsgate, it was obviously going to earn an R rating for the amount of times the characters said “F*ck” and its various permutations. Things it would make sense for them to say, given the situation they’re stuck in. But Lionsgate wanted to give the movie a theatrical release, and felt it would be more profitable with a PG-13. So Mann had to rely on an artificial-intelligence dubbing technology system developed by Flawless to scrub his movie of the f*cks. Luckily, Mann happens to be the co-CEO of Flawless.

Variety explains,

the Flawless team in post-production changed more than 30 F-bombs throughout the movie into PG-13-acceptable epithets like “freaking” along with a few other lines of dialogue. Flawless, founded in 2021, originally designed its TrueSync AI-based system to provide a better dubbing solution for films translated into other languages. Employing the same principles used to create “deepfakes,” TrueSync alters the mouth movements of the actors to match the alternate dialogue being spoken (a process the startup calls “vubbing”). Mann realized the Flawless engine could also be used to clean up the F-words in his movie.

Mann said,

For a movie like this, we can’t reshoot it. We’re not a big tentpole… we don’t have the resources, we don’t have the time, more than anything else. What really saved this movie and brought it into a wider audience was technology.”

Currey says the technology is so impressive, she can’t even tell which of her lines were dubbed. But when Gardner’s character says “Now we’re now stuck on this stupid freaking tower in the middle of freaking nowhere,” you can be pretty sure that Gardner didn’t say “freaking” on set.

Mann wrote the screenplay for Fall with Jonathan Frank, crafting the following story:

For best friends Becky and Hunter, life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now Becky and Hunter’s expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) and Mason Gooding (Scream 2022) are also in the cast.

James Harris and Mark Lane, who previously produced 47 Meters Down – which trapped Mandy Moore and Claire Holt at the bottom of shark-infested waters – produced Fall with Scott Mann and Christian Mercuri. Brianna Lee Johnson was the line producer.

What do you think of Fall using Deepfake-style technology to clean up the language for a PG-13 rating? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.