For years now, there has been hand-wringing about the potential infiltration of AI technology into the Hollywood landscape. The 2023 Writer’s Strike had a lot to do with fears about executives using AI to write scripts, and a so-called AI actress named Tilly Norwood allegedly has Hollywood excited about a future that doesn’t necessarily require highly-paid actors.
But like with most AI announcements, generative AI in Hollywood moviemaking continues to be more rumor than reality. And the latest Hollywood blockbuster, Project Hail Mary, is a good example of why I’m just not sold on the truth of an AI-generated movie resonating with audiences.
Project Hail Mary is a sci-fi comedy epic starring Ryan Gosling from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who have proudly boasted about having zero green screen shots in the entire film. Instead of relying too heavily on computer graphics, Lord and Miller used practical sets and a puppet of an alien. They made the movie the old fashioned way, with clever lighting and models, allowing expert artisans to blow audiences minds in-camera. And the result is a genuine crowd-pleasing hit.
Like Barbie and Oppenheimer both did back in 2023, Project Hail Mary prioritized using real sets and staging practical stunts to make something visually distinct, and crowds can’t seem to get enough. Compare that to the diminishing returns of the superhero craze, where audiences have grown tired of climactic CGI battles that all look alike with sludgy, computer-generated grey skies, and it seems to me that the love and care it takes to make a movie with practical effects truly does resonate differently – and more strongly – in audiences’ hearts and minds.
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