Blumhouse and Meta Test AI Filmmaking Model

Meta on Thursday said that it has partnered with Blumhouse Productions, the Hollywood studio behind well-known horror movies like The Purge and Get Out, to test its new generative AI video model, Movie Gen.

The news follows Meta’s earlier this month release of Movie Gen, which the company said could produce realistic-looking audio and video clips in response to human input. According to Meta, the tool might compete with products from top media creation businesses like ElevenLabs and OpenAI.

The Spurlock Sisters, Casey Affleck, and Aneesh Chaganty collaborated with Meta Movie Gen to create three short films that Blumhouse produced. The short films were a part of Meta’s pilot initiative, which aims to get input on their text-to-video technologies from the creative community.

Meta said in a blog post that directors Aneesh Chaganty, The Spurlock Sisters, and Casey Affleck had been chosen by Blumhouse to test out Movie Gen and include clips produced by the tool into their short films.

According to Meta, Affleck and The Spurlock Sisters’ films were on the horizon, and Chaganty’s movie would be available on the Movie Gen website.

According to a statement from Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum, artists continue to be the industry’s lifeblood, and cutting-edge technology can help them convey their stories.

Meta asked Blumhouse to collaborate with filmmakers to evaluate generative AI technologies. According to the business, Meta Movie Gen, which is not yet publicly accessible, will be tested with creatives until 2025.

While the technology is still in its early stages of development, Blum said, “we welcomed the chance for some of them to test this cutting-edge technology and give their notes on its pros and cons.” “Directors will find these to be very useful tools, and it is crucial to involve the creative industry in their development to ensure that they are most appropriate for the position.”

Through the agreement, Meta is indicating its intention to work with the creative industries, whose members have typically shied away from the introduction of generative AI technology due to copyright and permission issues.

Major tech companies, including Meta, have been sued by a number of copyright groups for using their works without permission to train generative AI systems. Meta has maintained that the copyright principle of fair use protects their AI training.

Nonetheless, Meta and other tech firms have indicated that they are prepared to pay for specific kinds of AI content. In addition to the collaboration with Movie Gen, Meta said last month that it has signed contracts with actors John Cena, Kristen Bell, and Judi Dench to provide voices for its Meta AI chatbot.

In a blog post on Meta AI’s website announcing the collaboration and Blumhouse-produced short films, Connor Hayes, VP of GenAI at Meta, stated, “Although we don’t intend to integrate Movie Gen models into any public products until next year, we feel it’s important to have an open and early dialogue with the creative community about how it can be the most useful tool for creativity and ensure its responsible use.”

In a similar vein, OpenAI, which is financed by Microsoft, has been meeting with agents and executives in Hollywood this year to talk about potential collaborations involving its video creation tool Sora, which it debuted in February.

Although Lions Gate Entertainment said in September that it had reached an agreement with Runway, another AI firm, no deals have reportedly emerged from those discussions as of yet.