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American director Gore Verbinski, who is at the Taormina Film Festival in competition with “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” spoke about the challenges of labelling the use of AI in films as the technology continues
to grow exponentially.
Verbinski’s latest, a genre-bending sci-fi that sees Sam Rockwell as a time-travelling madman recruiting help to save humanity from the threat of artificial intelligence, led the director to take a deep dive into new tools. Asked about the consequences AI will have on filmmaking, the veteran issued an alert: “You’re supposed to check this box to say no AI is used in your movie, and it’s going to become very complicated soon.”
“You’d have to go back 20 years,” he noted. “Technically speaking, artificial intelligence was being used for grading films, sharpening tools… These tools have existed for 20 years. You almost need a rating system. If you use AI to write a script, you get an F. What people are most afraid of is that there is no transparency. People are afraid of what is real and what isn’t.”
Alas, Verbinski is no purist, and doesn’t see the issue of labelling AI usage as purely black and white. If an independent filmmaker “couldn’t afford” to create a certain passage in their film that was “a central aspect” of its emotional metaphor, that would be “ok,” according to the director. “I think you have to be absolutely transparent [about] what it was used for. I would never try to use it to be in front of the story.”
Another major concern for Verbinski is how artificial intelligence is erasing entry-level positions, given that the new technology has primarily taken over menial tasks formerly attributed to interns, apprentices and assistants. “The loss of apprenticeship is a major concern,” he said. “You’re seeing in law firms, everywhere, it’s happening. It’s going to start happening in filmmaking.”
“I do think the path for young filmmakers is going to be forever changed,” he added, noting how the film industry used to recruit directors who worked on music videos and commercials. Now the entry pathways are much murkier. “The more you do it, the more you learn. I think you’re going to see more content creation people who are making things for YouTube or shorts, and you’re going to see a lot of AI-created narratives. As the industry reaches for those storytellers, that will be very interesting: are they grabbing at somebody who was cheating?”
Verbinski, who directed three installments of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise between 2003 and 2007, recalled his time working on the major productions. Looking back at memories of the set, the director emphasized how his relationship with the franchise’s star, Johnny Depp, is “really precious” to him. “We’re kindred spirits,” he said.
“I also felt like with the crew, there was something,” he went on. “We knew this was going to be the end of these movies where you get on a boat and go out to sea with a camera. We knew they were never going to let us do this, and this is going to end up in blue and green screens and process and gimbals. It’s crazy, right? It’s crazy to actually go out to sea with a camera.”
The director reiterated that, “when you make films on a stage or films that are completely synthetic, you’re swinging the cart in front of the horse and chasing something that is inherently unreal. I think there was a real spirit of [knowing] we were at the end of an era.”
As for what’s next, Verbinski said he would gladly welcome the opportunity of running in the opposite direction of new technologies and strip down his filmmaking to the very basics. “I would love to go purely analog and just tell a movie with no visual effects, no animation or anything. Because I think that’s the fundamental of storytelling.”
The “The Ring” director said he has “quite a few things on the burner,” but it is a “stingy time” and a “tough” moment for original IP. One of the 30-highest-grossing directors of all-time, with major blockbusters and critical darlings under his belt, the filmmaker still struggled to finance “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” eventually eschewing the studio system and independently financing the ambitious cautionary tale. Briarcliff Entertainment eventually picked up the film for U.S. distribution, and released it in movie theaters back in February, after its Berlinale bow.
He does have some hope, however, for the future of cinema-going and audiences’ curiosity about original stories. Commenting on recent horror box-office phenomena such as “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” Verbinski noted: “It’s a fascinating time. People seem to still go to the movies for the communal experience of being scared. It’s hard to get people to go to the cinema […] Anything is a win if people start showing up.”
