Major Studio Strikes Deal with AI Startup
By Movieguide® Contributor
Lionsgate, the studio behind major franchises like JOHN WICK and THE HUNGER GAMES, just struck a deal with AI startup Runway.
This announcement comes nearly a year after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA wrapped their months-long strikes, protesting, in part, for AI protections in entertainment fields.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Lions Gate Entertainment has agreed to give Runway, one of several fast-evolving AI startups, access to its content library in exchange for a new, custom AI model that the studio can use in the editing and production process.”
This deal is the first of its kind in the movie and TV industry, Engadget reported, noting that “Vice chairman of Lionsgate Studio, Michael Burns, said that in recent months, he feared falling behind competitors without a step like this.”
Runway’s press release promises that the partnership will “augment” Lionsgates’ creatives’ work as the new AI model, based on the studio’s proprietary catalog, “generates cinematic video that can be further iterated using Runway’s suite of controllable tools.”
The studio and startup are enthusiastic about the industry-shaking deal.
“Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities,” said Burns. “Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process. We view AI as a great tool for augmenting, enhancing and supplementing our current operations.”
“We’re committed to giving artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life,” Runway co-founder and CEO, Cristóbal Valenzuela, added. “The history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression; the best stories are yet to be told. Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work — we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”
This is a major advancement in AI’s use in the entertainment industry, and especially after the strikes last year to protest the tech’s use, it will be interesting to see how this impacts Hollywood’s future. Movieguide® reported on SAG-AFTRA’s concerns:
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike, partly due to concerns over artificial intelligence, more commonly known as AI.
“Studios had asked for the ability to scan the faces of background artists for the payment of one day’s work, and then be able to own and use their likeness ‘for the rest of eternity, in any project they want, with no consent and no compensation,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told BBC.
Because of this, the Screen Actors Guild decided to strike. The production of movies and tv shows will now be paused. If not quickly resolved, it could lead to a huge delay in movies and tv shows. Release dates will need to be pushed back in order to continue the production process.
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