Doug Liman’s upcoming film featuring Pete Davidson and Casey Affleck plans to utilize artificial intelligence to enhance the actors’ performances and generate set designs, as announced today.
The film, Kill Satoshi, follows an investigative reporter who explores the hidden realm of cryptocurrencies, seeking to uncover the identity of Bitcoin’s elusive creator, known only by the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
The production has issued a call for actors, and the trailer provides some insights into the filmmaking process. As reported by Variety, the casting notice states that the producers hold the right to “alter, supplement, retrieve, translate, reformat, or reprocess” the work done by the hired actors, indicating that generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and machine learning could enhance their performances.
However, the producers clarify that AI will not be used to perfectly replicate the actors’ features or voices, emphasizing that it will only serve to refine performances.
“They aren’t going to make you say anything you didn’t say, but if a line delivery wasn’t spot on, there’s no need for reshoots,” a source related to the film explained.
“We were extremely careful and protective of our actors, using performance capture AI, which means no AI-generated actors will be involved. AI is simply a tool to streamline the filmmaking process without displacing the roles of department heads and actors, and ideally to contribute positively to the industry,” said producer Ryan Kavanaugh, as noted in Variety.
While the casting notice implied that actors might appear on screen alongside AI-generated characters, producers have since made it clear that this is incorrect—only human actors will feature in the film, and the claims in the casting call were unintended.
In addition, producers have specified that filming will take place in front of a green screen, with AI being used to produce all backgrounds and set locations.
This casting announcement precedes the release of several hyper-realistic videos by the Chinese AI firm Seadance 2.0, which have raised concerns in Hollywood regarding the potential for AI to replace human actors in the entertainment sector. Their videos even include a lifelike fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
