Five years prior to his death in 2025, Val Kilmer was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.” But Kilmer, who was battling throat cancer, was too sick to ever make it to set.

… Even though he didn’t shoot a single scene, Voorhees has been able to realize his vision of having Kilmer in the ensemble by using state-of-the-art generative AI. And he’s done it with the cooperation of the late actor’s estate and his daughter Mercedes (Voorhees says Kilmer’s son Jack is also supportive). — Read More

AI is reshaping the way products are made: It’s accelerating exploration, lowering barriers to entry, and widening the circle of who can participate in the design process. In response, teams are honing new skills to meet the moment. In our recent report State of the Designer 2026, we asked the design community which skills matter most to them in the age of AI. Here, we’re sharing what those skills are—and how to perfect them. — Read More

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In a rare acquisition, Netflix has bought InterPositive, a start-up founded by Ben Affleck that makes AI-powered tools for filmmakers.

… While Netflix historically is more often a builder than a buyer, the company said it saw Affleck’s InterPositive as providing a unique set of AI tools that “keeps filmmakers at the center of the process.”  — Read More

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On This Day… 1776 is Darren Aronofsky’s short-form series focusing on key moments from that revolutionary year. The fact-based short films use a “combination of traditional filmmaking tools and emerging AI capabilities,” SAG voice actors and AI visuals, to dramatize scenes from the year’s most pivotal moments. The series draws on Aronofsky’s Primordial Soup’s partnership with Google DeepMind having each episode drop on the 250th anniversary of the event it depicts. — Read More

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In 2016, the legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki was shown a bizarre AI-generated video of a misshapen human body crawling across a floor.

Miyazaki declared himself “utterly disgusted” by the technology demo, which he considered an “insult to life itself.”

“If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it,” Miyazaki said. “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all.”

Many fans interpreted Miyazaki’s remarks as rejecting AI-generated video in general.

… But as these models have improved, they have sped up workflows and afforded new opportunities for artistic expression. Artists without AI expertise might soon find themselves losing work. — Read More

Kapwing’s new research shows that 21-33% of YouTube’s feed may consist of AI slop or brainrot videos. But which countries and channels are achieving the greatest reach — and how much money might they make? We analyzed social data to find out.

As the debate over the creative and ethical value of using AI to generate video rages on, users are getting interesting results out of the machine, and artist-led AI content is gaining respect in some areas. Top film schools now offer courses on the use and ethics of AI in film production, and the world’s best-known brands are utilizing AI in their creative process — albeit with mixed results.

Sadly, others are gaming the novelty of AI’s prompt-and-go content, using these engines to churn out vast quantities of AI “slop” — the “spam” of the video-first age. — Read More