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Netflix used generative AI to save money on a recent production — and the company’s co-CEO said he was “thrilled” with the results.
Ted Sarandos revealed on Thursday that the streamer used the technology when making “The Eternaut,” an Argentine production based on a popular sci-fi comic.
Sarandos said the show is the first Netflix title to use fully AI-generated shots in its final footage, with a sequence that shows the collapse of a building in Buenos Aires. Without AI, Sarandos said, such an effect would not have been cost-effective for a production the size of “The Eternaut.”
“In fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with visual, traditional VFX tools and workflows,” Sarandos told analysts during Netflix’s quarterly earnings call.
Sarandos said everyone was “thrilled” with the final product.
“The creators were thrilled with the result. We were thrilled with the result,” he said. “And more importantly, the audience was thrilled with the result. So, I think these tools are helping creators expand the possibilities of storytelling on screen, and that is endlessly exciting.”
Netflix is no stranger to AI. Sarandos has previously spoken about the use of AI on Rodrigo Prieto’s film “Pedro Paramo” and how much money was saved using AI for deaging effects as opposed to what it cost for Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.”
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“In fact, the entire budget of the film was about the VFX cost on ‘The Irishman,'” Sarandos said during Netflix’s first quarter earnings call in April.
AI remains a thorny issue in society writ large and in Hollywood in particular. Demands over AI usage were at the center of the historic dual actors and writers’ strikes that shut down production in 2023.
Fans expressed frustration at Disney in 2023 over Marvel Studios’ choice to use AI for credit art in “Secret Invasion,” a Disney+ series. Tyler Perry has said he has paused studio expansion plans because of the AI capabilities that are already available.
Visual effects is one area of Hollywood that could be drastically changed by AI, as audiences demand explosive climaxes and superhero features that strain production budgets.
As Netflix’s news illustrates, it won’t just be summer blockbusters that are changed.
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