Jodie Foster has revealed that she thought the recent F1 movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, had been made, at least in part, using AI.
From Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, the fictional drama followed a veteran F1 driver (Pitt) who comes out of retirement, and forms a rivalry with a younger rising star (Idris).
The film earned generally positive reviews, even scoring a (somewhat controversial) nomination for Best Picture at last year’s Academy Awards, in addition to earning upwards of $600 million at the global box office.
All in all, a solid success, but Foster shared during a panel at Aspen Ideas Festival that she had assumed it was made with AI – a comment she insisted was not meant “disparagingly”.
The Hollywood icon did, however, imply that the formulaic nature of the story and presentation had led her to that judgement.
“I look at a movie like F1 and I’m like, ‘F1 was made by AI.’ Wasn’t it? I mean, the structure was exactly the structure that you would learn in school.
“The actors say the lines exactly the way it would be written if a computer was writing exactly what would be the right thing for that time.”
There is no evidence to suggest that F1: The Movie used AI at any stage of its production, but Foster suggested it would be a positive example of what the technology can achieve should that prove to have been the case.
“They were able to dominate the technology to make something big and beautiful and potentially where a lot of the information comes from other places,” she added.
This idea of filmmakers and artists being “able to dominate AI” as opposed to having it replace them is an idea that Foster would return to while addressing her latest film A Private Life.
That feature, she explained, has an AI-generated dream sequence, which is purposefully random and surreal, with Foster citing it as an instance when the controversial tech helped “make things that reflect us”.
She did, however, note that the matter of workers’ rights in relation to AI tools is still a matter to be settled, with some actors facing the prospect of signing over their voice or likeness for long-term use by studios.
“Hopefully, things like unions will be able to come in and say, ‘You can use my actor 20 times, but you’re going to pay him 20 times’. And I think that’s fair.”
Earlier this year, F1: The Movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer told BBC News that a sequel was in the early stages of development.
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