Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill. Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: [email protected].
For many, artificial intelligence is a harbinger of doom — and with good reason. It’s pretty clear now that the technology will result in the death of jobs and certain creative processes. But what if AI’s power could also be harnessed to revive dead ideas? Amy Hobby, producer of Oscar-nominated documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Welcome to the Machine director Avi Zev Weider are going in search of an answer.
Hobby was cleaning out her garage last summer when she stumbled upon a bunch of old pitches consigned to history. Over coffee with her long-time friend Weider, they reminisced about artistic endeavours that did not lead to art, before alighting on a plan to rejuvenate lost pitches with tools that would have seemed sci-fi when the projects were originally conceived. The result is Films Not Made, a new podcast that invites Hollywood creatives to dust off dead pitches with the help of generative AI.
Launching on March 3, the show will host guests including Shrek 2 director Conrad Vernon, Sideways writer Rex Pickett, and Dear White People producer Effie Brown. They will be invited to revisit the ones that got away, the projects that painfully eluded their grasp. Weider, a sound specialist who has worked on Netflix’s Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and Hulu’s I Am Greta, will run their pitch materials, scripts, and supporting documents (think email conversations with studio executives) through Sora 2 and other AI models, with the results being picked apart during the podcast.
In an early episode, Weider and Hobby ponder Poodle Power, the true story of a man who raced poodles in Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The project went through several iterations over the course of a decade, including a live-action rescue helicopter drama, but ultimately failed to cross the finish line. Films Not Made’s AI workflow reimagines Poodle Power as a “prototype” neo-2D animation. The podcast conversation culminates in a “Netlix” trailer that’s “so bad,” they all fall about laughing.
“Tragedy plus time equals comedy,” Hobby smiles. She sees Films Not Made as an exercise in catharsis, providing closure on the creative energy that once collided with a brick wall. Hobby says it has allowed guests to “reframe success” and reflect on collaborators they met along the way, as well as how failure helped inform later triumph. She hopes the podcast can create a “little community” that clears the gloom from the graveyard of bygone ideas. “It feels good in this environment where a lot of people are losing jobs,” Hobby adds.
Has the show’s embrace of AI given any guests the ick? “We’ve had guests on who are not into AI and that’s part of the conversation,” Weider replies. “We’re not AI boosters … but I’ve always been interested in the intersection of technology and creativity.” Weider thinks artificial intelligence’s influence on the business is now just a daily reality, and he suspects most studios quietly feed pitches into AI tools to help inform decision-making.
Films Not Made is also unafraid to confront live conversations around personal image rights and copyright protections. When reviving projects, Weider will prompt with named actors to reflect desired casting picks. One resurrected pitch results in an AI trailer featuring A House of Dynamite star Jared Harris. Hobby says she has a connection to Harris, so she feels comfortable with evoking his likeness in Films Not Made materials. Weider thinks actors are fair game, partly because the podcast means no harm.
“We’re all breathing in the same air now,” he explains. “These tools exist. They’ve been trained on everything. Actors, filmmakers, books, scripts, art, all of us — we’ve been swept into something none of us consented to. That’s the atmosphere. The question is what you do once you’re breathing it in.”
If Hobby hopes Films Not Made can lead to emotional closure for guests, Weider has rather more tangible ambitions: “In my heart of hearts, I would love it if one of these got made. If somebody watched or heard the podcast and was like, ‘That’s a f***ing good idea.’”
English (US) ·