By 2035, AI is set to fundamentally transform the film industry in several interconnected ways:
1. Deepfakes & AI-driven Visual Effects:
- Virtually unlimited creative freedom: AI-powered deepfakes will allow seamless, photorealistic de-aging, resurrection of deceased actors, and transformative performance capture. This will enable filmmakers to cast any actor, living or dead, in any role.
- Lowered production costs: Visual effects, traditionally expensive and time-consuming, will become quicker and far more affordable due to automation and machine learning.
- Ethical & legal challenges: Intellectual property, performer consent, and authenticity will become central legal battlegrounds, prompting new industry norms and possibly legislation concerning digital likeness rights.
2. AI Actors & Virtual Performers:
- Rise of digital stars: Virtual actors—hyperrealistic, AI-driven characters—will star in live-action and animated works, with personalities that can be evolved and tailored by studios or even audience feedback.
- Audience engagement: Personalized experiences may emerge, with AI actors capable of adapting their performance to viewers' preferences, blurring lines between film, gaming, and interactive media.
- Human-AI collaboration: Live actors and AI counterparts may co-star, with AI augmenting backgrounds, emotions, or nonverbal cues to enhance realism.
3. Script Generation & Storytelling:
- AI-assisted writing: AIs will co-write, structure, and refine scripts—streamlining brainstorming, plot development, and dialogue creation processes. Studios may use AI to predict audience reactions, optimizing plot points for maximum engagement.
- End-to-end automation for some content: By 2035, "auto-generated" films — conceived, scripted, animated/shot, and edited by AI — will be viable for certain genres (e.g., children's shorts, procedurals, low-budget projects).
- Maintaining originality: While AI will expand creative options, distinctive human vision and emotional nuance may remain critical for prestige projects. Filmmakers will focus more on high-level concepts, with AI handling routine or formulaic aspects.
Summary:
By 2035, AI will make film production cheaper, faster, and vastly more flexible, catalyzing creative breakthroughs and raising significant questions about authorship, authenticity, and regulation. The industry will be divided between high-volume, AI-generated content and prestige/human-driven films, with new forms of storytelling and audience interactivity emerging. The core challenge will be balancing technological capabilities with legal, ethical, and artistic concerns.