Andy Serkis Teases New Project Featuring “AI Characters”

Andy Serkis has teased a new project featuring “AI characters” as he describes the growing, invasive tech as “another form of magic that is frightening people.”

The Lord of the Rings star said his Imaginarium production outfit is working on a “narrative driven story” that kicks off with 2D characters created using voice actors before they “come out into the AR [augmented reality] world.” “At that point they become ‘AI characters’ authored by artists and directors,” Serkis told a panel at the UK’s Labour Party conference. “They are in a world where you can have direct relationships with these CGI characters.”

Serkis didn’t elaborate on the project but spoke during a wide-ranging panel session in Liverpool about the possibilities afforded by AI.

“It is another form of magic that is frightening people,” he added. “Even the biggest VFX companies are not creating as great things as individuals in their basements. It is much misunderstood, much maligned and lumped together in the same way that people probably felt the internet was going to destroy everyone’s lives.”

A key and understandable challenge, Serkis added, is the battle for remuneration and clarification over AI copyright to avoid actors being “ripped off.” The actor, who made his name voicing and playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings franchise and will reprize the role in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt For Gollum, compared current fears of this ilk to the introduction of performance capture decades ago. “It’s taken a long time for actors to even understand what it is to put on a costume or make-up but stand in a [special] suit and do essentially what you do [normally], which is act,” he added. “We need the permissions to be there so you are able in some way to monetize these artists’ [work] in a proper way.”

Speaking alongside Serkis, Stan McCoy, who runs the EMEA division of the Motion Picture Association, said the UK has the “best system of copyright in the world.” “Keeping on the cutting edge and defending IP in the wake of AI will absolutely be the recipe that keeps the UK at the forefront,” he said.

The pair were speaking on a panel about growing the UK’s position as an international hub for film and television production.

Losing VFX

Serkis said the UK has “great crews and enormous talent” but is losing VFX work to cheaper competitors abroad.

“We create a pipeline that goes all the way through from creating the look and feel of a film or TV series to the end of principal photography, and then there is this sort of vacuum,” he added. “Suddenly the tax incentives aren’t there to go into the next phase and finish off a project [in the UK].”

Serkis urged better utilization of the UK’s expertise in video games, as he posited that there is “a bit of snobbery about the video game world from the film world.”