AI Animation's Big-Screen Readiness Aimed by OpenAI through Film Production
In a groundbreaking move for the film industry, a collaboration between OpenAI, Vertigo Films, and Native Foreign is set to premiere the first feature-length animated film created by generative AI at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Titled "Critterz," the film is expected to hit the screens in May 2024, following a nine-month production period.
The original short film, a play on the nature documentary genre, was written and directed by Chad Nelson, now a creative specialist at OpenAI. Nelson used the company's Dall-E to generate images for the environment and characters. The film features strange creatures that can understand and talk with the narrator.
James Lamont and Jon Foster, writers of the movie Paddington in Peru, have been roped in to pen the script for the full-length film. The production team plans to feed sketches from human artists into AI tools to animate them.
The use of generative AI in the film industry and creative fields is a subject of controversy. Questions about copyright and the ethics of AI-generated content have been raised, particularly regarding the ability of AI tools to generate things that resemble copyrighted characters. This controversy extends beyond the film industry, with the increasing prevalence of AI-created content on social media feeds making it difficult to distinguish real from fake videos.
OpenAI and Vertigo Films are planning to create a feature-length adaptation of the 2023 short film Critterz, which was a demonstration for OpenAI's Dall-E image generator. The budget for the film is less than $30 million. The film is intended to be a family adventure that expands the world of the Critterz characters.
Chad Nelson stated on LinkedIn that the film would use the latest research models from OpenAI "to innovate new production workflows." The controversy surrounding the use of generative AI in creative fields remains unresolved.
It's important to note that Ziff Davis, the parent company of the website, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Today's image and video generators, such as Google's Veo 3, can produce much more realistic-looking images and video compared to two years ago. The issue of copyright is a concern for AI companies, with lawsuits being filed by entertainment and media companies over the use of materials for training AI tools and the generation of copyrighted characters.
As we move towards a future where AI plays an increasingly significant role in creative industries, the debate around copyright, ethics, and authenticity is likely to continue. The premiere of "Critterz" at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival will undoubtedly be a significant milestone in this ongoing discussion.
