The Rise of “Skynet Cinema”: How AI is Rewriting the Future of Filmmaking
Not long ago, the idea of a movie being written, directed, and acted by artificial intelligence sounded like pure science fiction. But today, with OpenAI’s Sora 2 capable of producing hyper-realistic video from a single prompt, and virtual “AI actors” such as Tilly Norwood signing with agencies, that future suddenly feels close—and it has Hollywood on edge.
“I got a full treatment that said: ‘We’re making a 90-minute movie entirely with AI. Will you finance it for a couple of million bucks?’” recalls Guy Danella, president of film at XYZ Films (The Raid, Skylines). “That was the turning point for me. I call it Skynet cinema, because it really feels like we’re coming for the humans.”
The Indie Industry’s “Judgment Day”
Bryn Mooser, founder of nonfiction studio XTR, agrees that independent filmmaking may be approaching its judgment day—though not necessarily a Terminator-style apocalypse. Through XTR, Mooser has launched Asteria, an AI animation division developing projects with Natasha Lyonne and Toy Story 4 writer Will McCormack.
“Two technologies are colliding right now,” says Mooser. “First, NVIDIA chips are making rendering incredibly fast, even in real time. That’s not even AI—it’s just a revolutionary drop in cost. Second, custom AI models can now act like extensions of a creative team’s hand, speeding up things like storyboards, animatics, and backgrounds.”
For big studios, Mooser says, that means faster and cheaper production. For indie filmmakers, it means possibilities that were previously impossible.
“This isn’t about making Anora cheaper—AI can’t do that. It’s about helping independent filmmakers make bigger projects on realistic budgets,” he explains. “AI could democratize studio-level filmmaking.”
Asteria estimates that an animated feature that once cost $80 million to produce traditionally might now be made for under $10 million using AI tools.
XYZ Films’ Danella sees similar potential in moderation:
“If AI can save us just enough money to add another day of shooting, that’s the kind of conversation that makes sense,” he says.
Legal and Ethical Crossroads
Asteria’s strategy—training AI on licensed or original material—directly contrasts with the “scrape first, ask later” approach used by many major AI platforms. That tension just flared up in Europe: a Munich court ruled that ChatGPT violated German copyright law by reproducing lyrics from nine popular songs, marking a major win for rights group GEMA. OpenAI is appealing the verdict, but the case could set an EU-wide precedent.
At the same time, international buyers are beginning to demand AI disclosure clauses in contracts—asking whether AI was used, where, and on what data. As one sales rep put it:
“It’s insurance against whatever laws are coming next.”
The underlying concern, though, isn’t creative—it’s legal. The entertainment business runs on intellectual property, and data scraping has made IP protection the new battlefront.
“Our entire business depends on IP,” says Darren Frankel, who leads AI initiatives at Adobe. “If you don’t protect IP, you have no business. This shouldn’t be ‘for or against AI’—it’s about ethical versus unregulated AI.”
But Frankel warns the industry not to wait for lawmakers.
“Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google are spending about $364 billion this year, most of it on AI infrastructure. Our industry doesn’t even register in comparison,” he says. “You’re not going to stop that tide. The question is: how do you fight the good fight, and where do you draw the line?”
The Human Element
For Mooser, the disruption AI brings is inevitable.
“Technicolor shut down before AI even took hold,” he notes. “We haven’t even seen the full impact of AI inside VFX or animation yet. So the question becomes: do we cling to the old ways, or do we fight to create opportunities for the next generation?”
Danella, however, remains committed to the imperfect beauty of human filmmaking.
“I believe in human flaws—the good and bad that come with them,” he says. “Ideally, we’ll find synergy: using AI to make better movies, while keeping more humans working more days.”
Frankel puts it even more simply:
“If you don’t have humanity in it, it’ll be all frosting and no cake.”