Beloved veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) shocked the film world after announcing his backing of an AI tech start-up after revealing that he had used generative AI for storyboard prep (we assume for his latest film “What Happens At Night,” now in production), it drew ire from many online, including fellow director Boots Riley (“I Love Boosters”) adding his two-cents on the matter and now the Art Directors Guild is taking a swing at Scorsese as well, what we believe is the first Hollywood union to chime-in about the controversial stance as this would directly impact their members if AI technology is used to replace human artistans and crew members.
Here’s the official statement made by the Art Directors Guild on social media:
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Mr. Scorsese, The Business is not in flux. Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese is turning his back on the human artists who, throughout his career, have helped him create his most memorable works. In the recently released Black Forest Labs video promoting their generative AI product FLUX, Mr. Scorsese asks the question, “How do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew?” He claims the solution is the use of this generative AI program to do the jobs that are rightfully the jurisdiction of Art Directors Guild Local 800 artists and designers – human artists and designers who have been successfully collaborating with directors to visualize their films for decades. Mr. Scorsese’s promotion of a generative AI product circumvents the input of Art Directors Guild Local 800 art directors, graphic artists, illustrators, production designers, scenic artists, set designers, and other talented Union professionals.
Generative AI is only capable of producing this type of “cinematic intelligence” by ingesting large swaths of copyrighted work, likely scraped from the internet without consent, credit, compensation, or transparency. The skills of Art Directors Guild Local 800 artists and designers bring the highest level of value to any film or television production. To think their professional contributions can be mimicked or outshone by generative AI, which is built on work likely stolen from them and many other artists from around the world, is a betrayal of the collaborative nature of cinema.
Will the director abandon his ambition to bring generative AI to the industry, seemingly profiting from killing jobs along the way, given this growing criticism? That remains to be seen, but there does seem to be a groundswell of anti-AI sentiment as the industry bubble may be heading off a cliff in the near future, and bipartisan backlash toward the creation of AI data centers could end up being the death rattle (alongside being a political lightning rod for the U.S. midterm elections in November). Although unclear if Hollywood will ultimately shake off the draw to keep costs down and get projects done quicker than with humans, filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky and Doug Liman are already testing the waters with their own AI projects (taking things a step further than Scorsese).
Martin Scorsese is busy with that aforementioned supernatural film led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Mads Mikkelsen. Also, there is a new report that Scorsese and 20th Century Studios are aiming to shoot his untitled Hawaiian period crime flick in 2027-2028 (has a script penned by infamous “60 Minutes” producer Nick Bilton, installed by David Ellison and Bari Weiss at CBS News), which already has DiCaprio, Emily Blunt, and Dwayne Johnson. Another project on the horizon is the Las Vegas-set casino streaming series “The Roman,” led by Oscar Isaac at Netflix, and he also backed the Apple TV remake of “Cape Fear.”
The Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800 #adg800 has issued a statement on Martin Scorsese’s recent promotion of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI):
— Art Directors Guild (@ADG800) June 9, 2026
"Mr. Scorsese, The Business is not in flux.
Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese is turning his back on the human artists… pic.twitter.com/7vyqOVGWOZ
- Christopher Marc
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