Lionsgate is partnering with AI company Runway to create a new AI model, based on the movie studio’s archive film and TV content, the two companies announced on Wednesday.
The model will be “fundamentally designed to help Lionsgate Studios, its filmmakers, directors, and other creative talent augment their work” by creating video that can be altered using Runway’s proprietary tools, according to a joint release.
“Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities,” Lionsgate Vice Chair Michael Burns said in a statement. “Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process. We view AI as a great tool for augmenting, enhancing and supplementing our current operations.”
Burns, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, said the studio plans to first use Runway for storyboarding, and later, for creating backgrounds and special effects for its movies.
“We do a lot of action movies, so we blow a lot of things up, and that is one of the things Runway does,” Burns told the Journal.
The deal comes as Hollywood grapples with how to leverage AI — something that was made clear last year, when it became a major point of contention during the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes. On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills aiming to protect performers’ likenesses from being replicated by AI.
“We’re committed to giving artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life. The history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression; the best stories are yet to be told,” Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said on Wednesday. “Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work – we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”
Lionsgate — the company behind franchises like “John Wick” and “The Hunger Games” — was worried it would fall behind the competition if it didn’t start to utilize AI, Burns told the WSJ.
“It went from treading softly to ‘Let’s get into this people,’ Burns said.