By 2035, the film industry will not just be using AI as a tool; it will be fundamentally restructured around AI as a core infrastructure. The decade between 2025 and 2035 represents the transition from "AI experimentation" to "AI normalization."

Here is a prediction of how the industry will look by 2035, categorized by the key areas you requested.

1. Script Generation: The "Co-Pilot" Era

By 2035, the screenwriter will no longer start with a blank page. AI will handle the heavy lifting of structure, while humans focus on subtext and thematic resonance.

• Hyper-Personalized Drafts: Studios will use AI to generate 50 variations of a script's second act to see which narrative arc tests best with specific demographic algorithms before filming begins.
• The Death of the "Spec" Script: The traditional spec script (a standalone screenplay written by a writer hoping to sell it) will largely vanish. Instead, writers will pitch "AI-assisted treatment packages" where the AI expands the pitch into a full lookbook, storyboard, and scene-by-scene breakdown instantly.
• Dialogue Polishing: While AI will struggle to write "iconic" lines that define a generation, it will be ubiquitous for clearing dialogue, ensuring character voice consistency across seasons, and translating scripts for global production.
• Genre Blending: AI will facilitate "micro-genres." Filmmakers will be able to prompt a script that blends 1970s noir aesthetics with cyberpunk themes and 18th-century social structures, something too complex for a human team to brainstorm organically.

2. AI Actors & Deepfakes: The Rights & Consent Revolution

This will be the most contentious area. By 2035, the "Digital Likeness" will be a distinct property class, legally separate from the human actor.

• The Rise of the "Synthetic Lead": We will see the first A-list movie franchise starring a fully AI-generated human. This actor will never age, never make mistakes, and be available 24/7. Their "performance" will be a dataset of movement and voice trained on existing humans (with consent) or entirely procedural generation.
• Post-Mortem & Resurrection: The laws regarding the deceased will be clarified. A "Legacy Consent Act" will likely require estates to explicitly license digital likenesses for a set term (e.g., 50 years post-mortem). However, this will become a standard revenue stream for estates.
• Global Dubbing without Lip-Sync: AI-driven deepfake lip-syncing will be perfect. An actor will perform in English, and the AI will re-render their mouth movements to match Japanese, Hindi, or Spanish dialogue perfectly. Dubbing will no longer look like dubbing; it will look like the actor is speaking the viewer's language.
• The "Human Premium": Paradoxically, human actors will become a luxury good. Just as "Handmade" wine is valued over mass-produced wine, a film marketed as "100% Human Cast" will command a higher prestige ticket price, similar to how "Realism" is marketed today.

3. Deepfakes: The War on Truth and Trust

Deepfakes will move from "malicious disinformation" to "standardized production tools," but with heavy regulatory friction.

• Mandatory Watermarking: By 2035, there will be international standards (ISO) for "AI Origin Markers." Every frame of a movie containing synthetic content will carry an invisible digital watermark.
• The "Verification" Industry: A new sector of the industry will emerge dedicated to verifying authenticity. Production companies will spend significant budget "proving" that their CGI backgrounds and actors are not AI-generated to maintain marketing appeal.
• Background Extras: The era of the "background actor" (extra) will effectively end for low-budget productions. AI will generate thousands of unique crowd members in real-time on set (via "Infinite Virtual Production"). This eliminates the need for 100 extras on a bus scene; the AI renders them based on the script's needs.

4. Production Workflow: The "One-Person Studio"

The cost of entry for filmmaking will drop drastically, democratizing the industry but saturating the market.

• Pre-Visualization as Final: Concept art will be real-time. A director can walk onto a virtual set and see the lighting, camera angle, and actor performance instantly. This will accelerate the "shooting" phase, as more of the film is finalized in pre-viz than ever before.
• Real-Time VFX: The distinction between "production" and "post-production" will blur. VFX shots will be rendered in real-time on set. Directors will see the final CGI shot as they film the scene, allowing for immediate creative decisions.
• The "Edit" Revolution: AI editors will assemble a "Director's Cut" automatically based on the script and dailies. Humans will come in only to make the emotional tweaks. This will reduce editing costs by 60% and speed up turnarounds for streaming platforms.

5. Legal, Ethical, and Union Landscape

The strikes of 2023 (SAG-AFTRA and WGA) will be viewed as the "Great Awakening." By 2035, the landscape is defined by the Digital Talent Protection Act.

• Residuals for AI: If an AI actor is used in a movie, the human whose data trained the AI (or the actor who signed the likeness release) receives a flat fee plus a royalty based on the film's usage.
• Job Displacement: Entry-level jobs (script readers, VFX assistants, art department researchers) will be decimated. However, new jobs will emerge: "Prompt Engineers for Cinema," "Digital Rights Managers," and "AI Ethics Compliance Officers."
• Union Contracts: Unions will mandate that any AI-generated content must be clearly labeled (e.g., "This character is a synthetic performance"). Failure to label will result in massive fines.

Summary: The 2035 Film Landscape

Feature	2024 Reality	2035 Prediction
Scripting	AI for brainstorming only.	AI co-writes drafts; Human directs themes.
Acting	AI for background/voice.	AI for leads, stunts, and dubbing.
VFX	Weeks for rendering.	Real-time rendering on set.
Cost	High barrier to entry.	Low cost, high saturation.
Trust	High skepticism.	High skepticism, strict watermarking.
Talent	Human-centric contracts.	Hybrid contracts (Human + Digital License).

The Verdict

By 2035, AI will not replace the need for human stories, but it will replace the need for human labor in storytelling.

The industry will bifurcate. On one end, the High-Volume Tier: Endless, AI-generated content for streaming algorithms, personalized to the viewer's taste, featuring AI actors, written by AI. On the other end, the Prestige Tier: Small, expensive, human-centric films marketed explicitly for their "soul" and authenticity.

The filmmaker of 2035 will be less of a "creator of pixels" and more of a "curator of reality," deciding which parts of the world are real and which parts are generated. The ultimate skill will not be typing code or drawing a frame, but curation, taste, and emotional intelligence.