Hey Geek fans! AI isn’t just a buzzword in the tech world anymore! With it continually advancing at a rapid pace, it’s starting to pop up everywhere! From business, to healthcare, to art and photography, and even the film industry! Would you believe it! In this blog, we’re spilling the secrets on 6 movies that quietly used AI in movies (pre- and post-production) to help bring their movies to life!
Think you’re a bit of a movie buff? Let’s see if you recognise any of these films that got a little behind-the-scenes help from their good friend, artificial intelligence!
Emilia Pérez
The academy award winning musical Emilia Pérez was announced to have used a touch of AI by sound mixer, Cyril Holtz. In an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024.
After considering a vocal double, creators decided to use the AI voice cloner Respeecher. Apparently, this was because lead actress Karla Sofia Gascón struggled to hit the high notes the role demanded. It was also mentioned that the AI technology was used in an attempt to make Gascón sound a little bit more like late 1990s Cher.
What do you think about AI in movies being used to enhance an actress’s vocal abilities to suit a role or even to improve their likeness to another singer?
The Brutalist
Like Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet and starring Adrien Brody, used the AI software Respeecher in post-production. However, in this case it was used to improve actors’ Hungarian dialogue.
In fact, Editor Dávid Janscó who is native Hungarian, used his own voice as a source to improve pronunciation. Receiving some flak for the decision to use AI, creators reassured movie-goers that no English language was changed. They also reassured that all was done by the sound team and Respeecher in post-production to refine vowels and letters. All to improve the authenticity of the film.
Also of note, the movie used a generative AI based tool to help create the architectural designs for László Tóth. This is the fictional architect in the film.
Civil War
Unlike the other two films that used AI in post-production, the 2024 film Civil War took a different approach. They used AI to create images for the film’s marketing campaign. These promotional posters showed AI-generated, post-apocalyptic scenes set in major United States cities.
It was a good example of how AI in movies still has a long way to go. Some of the images had obvious mistakes. For example, the famous Marina Towers being placed on opposite sides of the river instead of next to each other. And even a car that somehow had three doors.
Errors aside, some moviegoers felt the posters were misleading. Setting up expectations that didn’t quite match what the film actually delivered.
So, what do you think? Did the marketing team behind Civil War genuinely miss these AI slip-ups? Or were they clever enough to know the mistakes would spark debate on a popular topic and draw more attention to the film?
The Star Wars franchise
Because Star Wars: A New Hope and then the following prequel films were released at least 22 years apart, the creators behind Star Wars had to take advantage of AI technology in later years to avoid re-casting some of the original 1977 actors.
For example, in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, one of the more recent films, they used deepfake technology to recreate a young Princess Leia (originally played by Carrie Fisher) and Grand Moff Tarkin (originally played by Peter Cushing). This allowed their characters to appear in the movie without re-casting.
Oh! And here’s a pretty cool story! Towards the end of 2020, a YouTuber known as Shamook uploaded an improved deepfake of a de-aged Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) in the Mandalorian films. It caught so much attention that ILM/Lucasfilm ended up hiring him in 2021! So it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing a lot more AI magic in future films.
The Irishman
Like the Star Wars franchise, The Irishman used AI for de-aging it’s actors. The actors in question included Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and of course the lead actor himself, Robert De Niro.
VFX artist Pablo Helman explained that they took clips featuring the actors from movies like Home Alone, The Godfather, Casino and Good Fellas. As well as hundreds of others. They then put these clips through an AI program that would look for similar camera angles and lighting. The program would then generate frames that looked like their younger versions in the same position.
Both the AI softwares, Face Swap and Industrial Light and Magic were used.
Late Night with the Devil
Finally, last on our list is the 2023 horror film, Late Night with the Devil. However, their implementation of AI is very brief in the film.
After horror fans expressed disappointment over the use of AI art in the film, directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes defended the project. They clarified that only three still AI-generated images were used as part of an early experiment, and no other part of the film involved artificial intelligence. They also pointed out that those images were further edited before being included in the final cut, emphasising that AI was used more as inspiration rather than a final product.
And there you have it! Six movies that used AI in their final cut!
Curious about how to tell the difference between real and AI-generated content? Check out our blog, How to Spot AI Images, for some handy tips.
In the meantime, what’s your take on AI in entertainment? Are you all for it, or do you prefer your content made the old-fashioned way… by humans?
