Australian film-maker Alex Proyas: ‘broken’ movie industry needs to be rebuilt and ‘AI can help us do that’
At a time when capitalist forces are driving much of the advancement in artificial intelligence, Alex Proyas sees the use of AI in film-making as a source of artistic liberation.While many in the film sector see the emergence of artificial intelligence as a threat to their careers, livelihoods and even likenesses, the Australian film-maker behind The Crow, Dark City and I, Robot, believes the technology will make it much easier and cheaper to get projects off the ground.“The model for film-makers, who are the only people I really care about at the end of the day, is broken … and it’s not AI that’s causing that,” Proyas says.“It’s the industry, it’s streaming.”He says residuals that film-makers used to rely on between projects are drying up in the streaming era, and the budgets for projects becoming smaller.
“We need to rebuild it from the ground up.I believe AI can help us do that, because as it lowers the cost threshold to produce stuff, and as every month goes by, it lowering it and lowering it, we can do more for less, and we can hopefully retain more ownership of those projects,” he says.Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningProyas’s next film, RUR, is the story of a woman seeking to emancipate robots in an island factory from capitalist exploitation.Based on a 1920 Czech satirical play, the film stars Samantha Allsop, Lindsay Farris and Anthony LaPaglia and has been filming since October last year.Proyas’s company, Heretic Foundation, was established in Alexandria in Sydney in 2020, and Proyas described it at the time as a “soup to nuts production” house for film.
He says RUR can be made at a fraction of the US$100m cost it would have been in a traditional studio.This is partly due to being able to complete much of the work directly in the studio via virtual production through a partnership with technology giant Dell that provides workstations that allow generative AI asset creation in real time as the film is made.The production time for environment design can be reduced from six months to eight weeks, according to Proyas.In Proyas’s 2004 film I, Robot – made at a time when AI was much more firmly in the realm of science fiction – the robots had taken on many of the jobs in the world set in 2035, until it went wrong.Asked whether he is concerned about what AI means for jobs in film, particularly areas such as visual effects, Proyas says “workforces are going to be streamlined” but people could be retrained.
“I believe there will be work for everyone who embraces and moves forward with the technology as we’ve always done in the film industry,” he says.Guardian Australia is speaking to Proyas in the same week Australia’s Productivity Commission came under fire from creative industries for opening discussion on whether AI companies should get free access to everyone’s creative works to train their models on.Sign up to Saved for LaterCatch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tipsafter newsletter promotionProyas argues “you don’t need AI to plagiarise” in the “analogue world” already.“I like to think of AI as rather than artificial intelligence, it’s ‘augmenting intelligence’, because it allows us to streamline, to expedite, to make things more efficient,” he says.“You will always need a team of human beings.
I think of the AIs as one of the part of the collaborative team, which will allow smaller teams to do things better, faster and cheaper.”As the internet floods with AI-generated slop, Proyas says he is working to bring his skills in directing over the years to get the desired output from AI, refining what it puts out until he is happy with it.“My role as a director, creator, visual guy has not changed at all.Now I’m working with a smaller human team.My co-collaborators, being the AIs, have got to service my vision.
And I know what that is,” he says.“I don’t sit behind a computer and go, ‘funny cat video, please’.I’m very specific, as I am to my human collaborators.”Alex Proyas will speak about AI in film-making at the Dell Technologies Forum in Sydney on 2 September
Nigel Farage says ‘there’s every chance of general election in 2027’
Nigel Farage has said there is every chance of a general election in 2027, declaring he will run on a pledge to “stop the boats” within two weeks of entering No 10.Speaking at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham, he said the chaos in government and Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister meant the party needed to be “ready” to fight a contest two years early.He said Rayner’s actions “scream of entitlement” and the Labour government was even worse than the Tories who went before it.With Keir Starmer preparing a reshuffle to replace Rayner, the Reform UK leader laid into the “cabinet of people wholly unqualified to run our country”.Speaking without an Autocue or script, Farage said Rayner quitting – not just as housing secretary but elected deputy leader – meant there would be an internal battle in Labour
UK children face barriers to outdoor play due to poor planning, says study
Children in cities across Britain face barriers to playing outside because urban planners are prioritising housebuilding over parks, a study has found.The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cities and Health, found that planners were prioritising the approval of new homes ahead of outdoor play spaces due to a combination of policy misalignment, financial constraints and pressures stemming from a lack of housing.Emily Ranken, from the University College London Institute for Education and corresponding author of the research, said: “Our study offers a deep analysis of the challenges in embedding play into urban policy and our recommendations offer a blueprint for councils, developers, and public health leaders to make play a priority.”She added: “Well-designed play space has so many positive knock-on effects. For children, it takes them outside, away from screens and develops their cognitive and physical skills
Reform UK could strip FCA of power to regulate banking if elected
Nigel Farage could strip the City watchdog of its power to regulate the banking industry under a sweeping overhaul to undo changes made after the 2008 financial crisis if Reform UK was elected to government.The leader of the party at the top of opinion polls has said he wants to prepare for the potential for an early general election in 2027.A metals trader before entering politics, Farage has told allies that a Reform UK government would sweep away rules governing the City of London as a priority to boost economic growth, the Financial Times reported.This would include stripping the Financial Conduct Authority of its role in regulating banks, with control handed instead to the Bank of England. “Nigel thinks the FCA is a disaster and banking regulation needs to go back to the Bank of England,” a source close to Farage told the paper
Angela Rayner, plain-speaking scourge of the Tories, made herself vulnerable
When Nadhim Zahawi’s fate was hanging in the balance after a scandal over unpaid taxes, Angela Rayner was one of the first to pile on the political pressure.“Nadhim Zahawi’s story about his tax affairs doesn’t add up,” she said at the time. “After months of denials, the truth emerges. His position is untenable. Rishi Sunak must dismiss him from his cabinet
Angela Rayner’s departure is an old-fashioned scalp for the rightwing press
Angela Rayner’s departure from cabinet marks an abrupt end for a politician who had fought doggedly to reach Labour’s top table. It also represents an old-fashioned scalp for the press, elements of which have been poring over her finances and living arrangements for more than a year.The frustration among Rayner’s friends is that she had already survived waves of stories aimed at derailing her political career. However, they say her admission that she did not pay the correct stamp duty on the purchase of a Hove flat, which some see as a maddening own goal, gave her opponents a clear opening.The Telegraph was already claiming victory on Wednesday, reliving how it had exposed crucial details of the Labour deputy leader’s tax arrangements on the flat purchase at the end of last week
Starmer must not meet Israeli president during UK visit, say Labour MPs
The president of Israel will travel to London next week amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Keir Starmer not to meet the visiting delegation.The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly.Herzog is expected in the UK on Wednesday and Thursday – the first time a senior Israeli leader has been in Britain since the foreign secretary, David Lammy, met his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, on an unannounced visit in the spring.A foreign leader of such seniority would normally expect to spend time with high-ranking government ministers, but any meeting between Herzog and Starmer would be controversial within Labour amid Israel’s military action in Gaza.No 10 has not confirmed any meeting between Herzog and the prime minister, and there are precedents for him not to do so, with Starmer having recently avoided a meeting with Bangladesh’s chief adviser, Muhammad Yunus
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