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Killing Satoshi’s Casting Notice Claims AI Use
Generative film // GIF by Kate Walker
Killing Satoshi — the new film from director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow) — will use AI to manipulate actors and generate entire locations.
The Big Picture: Using AI in Hollywood movies has been an ongoing point of contention, with some filmmakers exploring ethical, creative applications, while others treat it as a shortcut to production. Liman is likely the most high-profile filmmaker to test the technology on a feature film, a move that could place the project squarely under Hollywood’s microscope.
Behind The Scenes: Killing Satoshi stars Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson, who will be sharing the screen with a lot of AI-generated elements.
A UK casting notice for the upcoming project about the mysterious founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, states that the movie may use the tech to “adjust” certain performances, per Variety.
The notice says the film’s producers — including Proximity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh — reserve the right to “change, add to, take from, translate, reformat, or reprocess” lip, facial, or body movements using AI.
Producers will explicitly not create a “recognizable and identifiable digital replica” of an actor’s voice or likeness.
Talent will also perform on a “markerless performative capture stage and not in any locations, using new AI technologies.”
Final Credits: Kavanaugh told Variety that the production is using AI to optimize the filmmaking process without displacing jobs. That’s certainly what SAG-AFTRA is hoping for, which could make Killing Satoshi “Exhibit A” in its just-commencing contract negotiations with the studios and streamers. After the recent debacle involving ByteDance’s AI video generator Seedance 2.0 — widely seen as flouting copyright law and NIL rights — AI is certain to be one of, if not the main, topics of discussion.
Coming Soon: If the AI use in Killing Satoshi is sanctioned by the guilds, it could become the catalyst for several new indie studios to launch with a mandate to produce AI-augmented, performance-capture, live-action films.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.