Hollywood\u2019s AI experiment is going global: Critterz, an animated feature built with OpenAI tools, is racing to finish in just nine months and land a Cannes 2026 premiere.<\/p>\n
Blending human sketches with machine-driven animation, the project is testing whether AI can speed up \u2014 and shake up \u2014 the film industry\u2019s playbook.<\/p>\n
The idea began with Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, who first used the then-new DALL-E tool to sketch out the characters. What started as an experiment turned into a short film in 2023, funded by OpenAI. Now Nelson has teamed up with London\u2019s Vertigo Films and L.A.\u2019s Native Foreign to turn Critterz into a full-length feature.<\/p>\n
The movie\u2019s production window is a mere nine months. For comparison, most animated films take about three years. James Richardson, co-founder of Vertigo Films, told The Wall Street Journal<\/a> that the effort is \u201ca very ambitious massive experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n The budget is under $30 million, which is much <\/em>less than the $100 million to $200 million many animated features cost. To get there, the team is blending AI and human work: artists provide sketches fed into OpenAI\u2019s tools (including GPT-5), while actors will voice the characters.<\/p>\n \u201cOpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it\u2019s much more impactful if someone does it,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThat\u2019s a much better case study than me building a demo.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Critterz isn\u2019t just going to cruise into Cannes without raising a few eyebrows.<\/p>\n Hollywood is already on edge about AI\u2019s role in content creation<\/a>. Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed lawsuits against AI company Midjourney over alleged copyright infringement. Actors and writers\u2019 guilds have also fought for protections against AI tools they say could threaten jobs.<\/p>\n Still, the Critterz team has taken steps to protect the project. Human-created voices and sketches make the film eligible for copyright, according to Native Foreign co-founder Nik Kleverov. About 30 contributors are working on the film and will share in any profits through a specialized compensation model.<\/p>\n Production is already underway. The goal is to premiere at Cannes, then roll out broadly to theaters worldwide. An OpenAI spokesperson summed up the effort: the film \u201creflects the kind of creativity and exploration we love to encourage.\u201d<\/p>\n Other studios are also testing AI in more focused ways. Netflix recently used AI tools to generate the collapse of a building in its Argentinian show The Eternaut. And James Cameron, never one to shy away from big swings, has said, per PCMAg<\/a>, that AI could help double the \u201cspeed to completion on a given shot\u201d and free filmmakers to spend more time on the creative flourishes.<\/p>\n Whether audiences will buy a ticket remains to be seen. But if Critterz pulls it off, it could be the most unlikely case study yet for AI\u2019s place on the big screen.<\/p>\n Critterz isn\u2019t the only signal of change. Last December, <\/strong>Peter Chernin and Andreessen Horowitz backed Promise Venture Studio<\/strong><\/a>, a new effort to weave AI into everything from scriptwriting to post-production. Another sign that Hollywood and AI are on a collision course.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post AI\u2019s Hollywood Experiment: Critterz Goes to Cannes<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hollywood\u2019s AI experiment is going global: Critterz, an animated feature built with OpenAI tools, is racing to finish in just nine months and land a Cannes 2026 premiere. Blending human sketches with machine-driven animation, the project is testing whether AI can speed up \u2014 and shake up \u2014 the film industry\u2019s playbook. A different kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Copyrights, lawsuits, and creative risks<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s next for Critterz (and AI in Hollywood)<\/h2>\n