Director George Lucas, going back to his “THX 1138” days back in the late 1960s, has been on the pulse of Hollywood VFX, he helped championed the massively creative team of designers, artists, and craftsman that would eventually form/found Industrial Light & Magic alongside being one of the first major advocates for full-on CGI sets and motion-capture characters on the “Star Wars” prequel films starting in the 1990s.
In a new and rare interview, Lucas is sharing his impressions on the future use of AI and, unsurprisingly, the tech-heavy director/producer believes it’s the “future of filmmaking.” Speaking with A Rabbit’s Foot to help promote Lucas’ longtime passion project, The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, he’s now talking up the AI technology being able to make it easier for people to make movies. As you can imagine, he has a more positive position on it, despite the fear of this potentially harming the VFX industry and putting artists out of work in the process.
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““Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies. It’s very much like sitting here saying, ‘Well, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where it’s at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, there’s all kinds of problems with them, and pretty soon they’ll be making them into tanks, and then they’ll be killing people. It’s terrible.'”
“There’s nothing you can do about it…That’s progress; it’s the future…If you want AI that tells you when something is fake and where it came from, AI can do that. Humans can’t; we’re not that smart. The whole idea is you’re a human being, you’re responsible for what you say and what you do, and if you’re doing something that’s illegal, you should be punished for that. Whatever you do, you should be recognized. It’s just like real life,” George Lucas said of the impact of the new technology, which is just a sign of the times and an advancement to help filmmakers get projects done a lot more easily.
We don’t know specifics about how much ILM is going to be using AI in the future, but it certainly sounds like Lucas won’t need much convincing about the company embracing it and expanding its use over time (competitor Wētā FX sounds like it’s getting into that world with “The Hunt For Gollum” and possibly future “Avatar” installments to keep costs down). That said, we’ve seen an increasing backlash online from young and old moviegoers who see the other side of the argument (AI data centers are getting growing ire from folks across the political spectrum) and the threat it poses, so, we’ll have to wait to see if the tech bubble concerning AI even survives with reporting that the industry and billion-dollar companies associated with it could be in the brink of bankrucpcy (how that impacts VFX technologies in Hollywood remains to be seen).
After his self-imposed retirement from filmmaking, we don’t really know how involved George Lucas is going to be with future projects or ILM as a whole. We are hopeful that the public embraces his new museum, as anything that celebrates art and storytelling in that manner is a huge bonus to cementing the impact of the culture of film on our society.
Christopher Marc is lead writer at The Playlist and the primary engine behind our daily news coverage. Chris is based in Canada and tracks everything from Marvel and Star Wars developments to arthouse acquisitions and festival buzz with equal enthusiasm and an instinct for the story readers actually want to read.
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