When Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t star in a biopic about him, Polish director Patryk Vega turned to artificial intelligence.
The groundbreaking film, whose trailer begins with a diapered leader huddled on the floor, uses the ruler’s deep prosthetic face superimposed onto the body of a real actor.
“To get extremely close to the dictator, we need Putin, not an actor in makeup,” Vega told AFP at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was presenting the film to buyers.
“I called Putin and asked if he wanted to play a role in my movie… No, it was just a joke.”
Vega, a 47-year-old director who has made several hit Polish films, used AI to create only faces, because he did not have enough high-resolution images to create an effect. full body deepfake product.
The results were strange.
The makers of the film, known simply as “Putin”, said it had been sold in 50 countries before its September release.
The film follows the ruler’s life over six decades from the age of 10 when he was beaten by his stepfather.
“At the end I showed his death. A happy ending,” Vega said.
The original idea came to Vega during the first days of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
“First I wanted to make a movie about the Russian mafia. Then I decided to work on the biggest gangster,” he said.
He dismissed any concerns about retaliation.
“Putin should be afraid of me,” he said.
After developing the technology, he wanted to share it with others, saying directors could send him footage and he could add crowds, actors and many other elements.
Such ideas are a source of great concern in Hollywood, where AI threatens to wipe out many jobs, especially among special effects technicians and extras.
That was the key issue of a months-long strike by actors and writers last year that ended in a tough deal with studios that included a promise to pay actors if Their AI-generated images are used.
However, many studios have used AI widely, such as to reduce the age of actors like Harrison Ford in the recent “Indiana Jones” but are afraid to talk openly about it, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Some uses are more difficult to defame.
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media developed an algorithm to scan screenplays for bias, including how often female characters speak and how many LGBTQ characters are included.
YouTube, the film industry’s key partner in advertising and distribution, has been using AI for a decade for things like automatic captioning and copyright protection, and is rapidly expanding its capabilities. AI tools are available to budding filmmakers.
Since April, they have been labeling AI-generated content and are beefing up their detection programs.
“AI will not take over creative work,” said head of YouTube France Justine Ryst. “It will simplify the complex and make the impossible possible.
“We need to be bold and innovative but also responsible,” she added.
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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.
