Paul Schrader Predicts AI-Generated Protagonists Will Become Box Office Stars
By
Dade Hayes
An everything bagel for the brain. Substantive, layered, well-seasoned.
Summary
79-year-old filmmaker Paul Schrader delivered a keynote at AI on the Lot arguing that the true commercial future of AI in film lies not in flashy special effects or monsters, but in creating AI-generated protagonists that audiences will embrace as box office draws. He envisions a future where filmmakers can generate characters like "the new Clint Eastwood" via text prompts, a vision that excited the AI-convert audience but is likely to provoke controversy across the broader film industry.
Key quotes
· 2 pulledI don't think the real future of AI commercially is in all this flash, all these monsters – that's just jacked-up special effects on steroids.
The real tip of the spear is when we can create an AI protagonist, not a hybrid, and that movie
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