For director Neill Blomkamp, “District 9” must feel like an eternity ago.
The 2009 sci-fi action film used a quasi-documentary style to tell a thrilling tale of a man fighting for survival against government-backed mercenaries while his body fused with alien DNA — even if, let’s be real, it was an extremely clunky allegory for Apartheid. The heaps of body horror and gritty special effects definitely helped, on top of a breakout performance from Sharlto Copley who conveyed a palpable sense of desperation. It was nominated for four Oscars and made loads of money: by the standards of the film industry, it was an unqualified success.
But it’s mostly been downhill for Blomkamp ever since. His movies have continued to make money, for the most part, but their reception has been worse and worse. He’s gone on to accrue so many unrealized projects that he has an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to them. He also started a blockchain based game development studio, where he’s received backlash for allegedly not paying employees for months on end. Things just don’t seem to go his way.
Now, for a director desperate to make a name for himself again without the same resources he once had at his disposal, where else to turn to but embracing AI?
On Monday, Blomkamp announced “NIGHTBORNE,” his “first full test AI film” made using the popular Chinese model Seedance 2.0. He also announced Barley Studios, his new AI film studio, where he promises more slop spectacles will be forthcoming.
“I’ve been experimenting with AI for a couple of years, and it’s now at the point where I want to tackle a full feature in this format,” Blomkamp enthused.
The film, he claims, “was made with real concept artists, and features the faces and voices of 32 real people.”
Rather than generate hype, the AI film has been ripped apart as a clear sign of his decline — the pièce de résistance in his fall from grace. “If His Sh*tty AI Movie Is What Finally Taught You Neill Blomkamp Is A Hack,” a headline from Aftermath lambasted, “Then So Be It.” The Verge was no less forgiving, calling it “slop warmed over.” Redditors blasted Blomkamp as a “one hit wonder” who went “full AI slop mode.”
Audiences clearly don’t see a filmmaker embracing AI as a sign that they’re on the cutting edge of the medium. It’s the exact opposite: they’re regressing to letting their artistic choices be dictated by a machine that averages together better art that came before it. Pivoting to AI, in other words, is looking more and more like the death knell for a filmmaker’s career. Darren Aronofsky created an AI-generated video series about the American Revolutionary War that was universally panned. Paul Schrader has repeatedly gushed about AI and teased that he’d do an AI movie, as his career appeared to be on the ice after sexual misconduct allegations.
And Blomkamp, despite being renowned for his gritty visuals and his use of special effects, doesn’t seem to be bring anything new to the table here. His AI imagery looks as generic and uncanny as everyone else’s — maybe even slightly worse, to be honest — with its fast editing style trying to cut around the fact that the AI model can’t generate clips longer than a few seconds at a time.
More on AI: “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” Will Use AI to De-Age Actors
The post Neill Blomkamp Is Making It Look Like AI Is the Last Resort for Filmmakers With Failing Careers appeared first on Futurism.
