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4 months ago
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When it comes to whether AI is friend or foe, particularly in regards to its place in the film industry, David Cronenberg is both intrigued and terrified.
“What do we do? I have no idea,” said the Canadian horror sci-fi maestro.
Cronenberg’s techno-looking forward, yet eerie dystopian, The Shrouds follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. There’s a moment in the film that deals with AI. Guy Pearce‘s character Maury, has set-up Karsh’s computer. Maury claims to live inside it, along with blonde Hunny the AI bot that does Karsh’s admin.
Cronenberg is rather amazed at AI’s powers in filmmaking.
“As a filmmaker who welcomes the advent of computer generated imagery, which we called CGI, it’s made filmmaking much easier,” said Cronenberg. He spoke about how the coffee cup was left in the opening of Ridley Scott’s Alien and thanks to CGI, a snafu like that can be erased out.
“I think artificial intelligence can enhance that, so on that level I welcome that and I look forward to using it. It’s quite shocking what can be done even now with the beginning of artificial intelligence.”
Cronenberg said that screenwriters will be known as “prompters” as merely providing the AI details and descriptions which can easily develop a full-bodied movie. “That comes directly from what you wrote as a prompter.”
“If the persons can write it in enough detail, the movie will appear.”
“The whole idea of productions and actors and so on will be gone, that’s the promise and threat of artificial and intellgence,” said Cronenberg.
“Do we welcome that or fear that? Both, both,” said Cronenberg.
The director has said that The Shrouds is autobiographical; he wrote it following his wife’s battle with cancer.
“I stopped filmmaking after that for a few years, and I felt the impulse to tell the story,” he said.
Cronenberg was quite the firecracker at 2022 Cannes when he was here with Crimes of the Future; the filmmaker slamming the United States.
“In Canada, and I have said this recently, we think everyone in the U.S. is completely insane, I think the U.S. has gone completely bananas, and I can’t believe what the elected officials are saying, not just about Roe vs. Wade, so it is strange times” said Cronenberg about the right leaning political attitudes stateside.
