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Higgsfield rankled some in the film industry in the spring with its showcase of its completely AI-generated “Hell Grind,” so almost in response, it’s brought some humans
in the mix – in a sense.
The AI startup’s next film, “Cully Hill Boys,” is still lacking in actual humans on the screen, but instead features characters modeled after the streamer N3on, UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, actor and UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and the basketball-focused influencer Matt Kiatipis. The 110-minute movie aims to be the first AI-generated production featuring legally licensed celebrity likenesses.
Higgsfield’s movie — directed by “Hell Grind” director Aitore Zholdaskali and written by Tim Planagan from a script the company purchased from the screenplay submission service the Black List — is not meant to be a feature film marketed for public consumption, even if it’s telling a narrative and produced with humans involved.
Instead, the company intends for the project to showcase its Cinema Studio platform, one it hopes Hollywood studios adopt as they experiment with AI’s potential use cases. Even as Higgsfield promises the film isn’t meant for Hollywood’s content pool, the project is a test for how public figures can get paid to see their likenesses and scripts adapted with generative AI.
But for Planagan, who has worked for years to get the story brought to life, seeing it produced in any fashion is a dream come true.
“I’m just honored that the screenplay was selected as a story that kind of showcases their toolkit,” Planagan said in a video interview from his home in Portland, Oregon. “I haven’t seen the film yet, so I’m excited to see what their skilled group and talented folks were able to accomplish with that platform’s capabilities.”
Planagan said his work on the project — set in East London, featuring a group of mobsters he said hadn’t been depicted in a film before — began years ago, with the feedback he received on iterations uploaded to the Black List helping shape the final product. But as producers approached him about developing his script, they wanted changes that would generalize the story — and pay him Writers Guild of America rates, though he’s not a guild member – but some he felt betrayed his script’s intent (such as, say, a desire to move the story from London to somewhere in the United States).
“It’s a difficult thing to turn down,” he said. “When you have this scripture, you have to kind of really look within yourself and decide whether or not that’s something you’re willing to compromise on, and I just didn’t feel very comfortable doing it.”
Then, roughly two months ago, came Higgsfield. In his conversations with the AI company, he was enamored by its respect for the screenplay and intrigued by the idea of seeing it brought to life using AI – even if the final product is just a showcase for the technology, tools Planagan doesn’t personally use for writing.
But despite the consternation in Hollywood about how AI models train off writers’ work, leading to the WGA to launch an #AINeedsHumans campaign as a rallying cry around the technology, Planagan said he wasn’t worried about such cases and that he’d let another story of his be adapted with the technology again. (Planagan’s agreement with Higgsfield, which he said was “on par” with WGA rates, was limited solely to AI adaptations.)
“I would be honored to have another script displayed in this way,” said Planagan. “It’s more about being able to come up with a script that meets the quality requirements for storytelling at all. It’s very validating to to have your story used and read and wanted to be showcased for any purpose, so yeah, I would definitely do it.”
Such is the same case for N3on, the digital moniker of 21-year-old Mikyle Rafiq. Rafiq, whose team brought him “Cully Hill Boys” as part of an array of potential opportunities, said he was “really, really excited” by the project — especially one that, according to him, only needed a two-minute voice recording and some photos to bring his likeness to life.
“I’m streaming every day, so me trying to act in a movie and wake up at 6 a.m. and do all these things and come every day, it’s just unrealistic,” he said. “So this is a way to do it without having to do anything really.”
Rafiq said the project, which gave him a “pretty good check with very little work,” aligned with his interest in the technology, one he says his legion of followers — he has 1.1 million YouTube subscribers and roughly 700,000 subscribers on the streaming platform Kick – already use to put him in “the weirdest situations” and make him do “the craziest things.”
Rafiq spoke to Variety after a Saturday incident during the Toronto Caribbean Festival where a golf cart he was on appeared to run over a woman as he was streaming. Rafiq was not driving the golf cart and emphasized that no one on his team was driving the cart, but he has since spoken to the victim, who he said went into surgery. “It was very, very, very unfortunate,” he said.
He plans to promote “Cully Hill Boys” on his streams, and should audiences respond well to the showcase, he could see himself in another AI-generated project.
“I really want to continue doing stuff like this in the future,” he said. “I really want to see how everyone comes together and and sees and just to see what people think about it. But I think the feedback can be positive, and I want to keep continuing to do stuff like this.”
Watch the trailer for “Cully Hill Boys” below:
