Christopher Nolan is glad young filmmakers are “rejecting” AI slop
Ahead of the release of his latest blockbuster, The Odyssey, filmmaker Christopher Nolan has shared his thoughts on AI in the industry, which he believes is “hitting at exactly the wrong time”.
Though the two-time Oscar-winner believes that not all forms of artificial intelligence are “useless of meaning”, he thinks the technology hasn’t hit the right chord in the film world.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Nolan shared, “I’ve never seen a more rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology in my lifetime.”
He added, “So much energy has been expended on bringing in AI, but if you look at that generation’s reaction, they’re utterly rejecting it.”
The Oppenheimer filmmaker used his own children as an example, explaining that “Their judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh. They see it for what it is very quickly, and it’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well.”
Looking back on an industry he knows intimately, Nolan added, “After years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling.”
Earlier this week, Nolan praised two new horror films were unprecedented box office hits, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and Curry Barker’s Obsession, as proof that cinema isn’t dying; he previously celebrated the “very young filmmakers [who are] connecting with their audience, getting young people into cinemas.”
In the new interview, he expanded on his appreciation for the films, whose filmmakers have both outright rejected AI: “Those films are so mysterious and ruminative,” He shared. “I mean, parts of Backrooms are like David Lynch at his most obscure. And yet young people can’t get enough of them.”
He added, “I think cinema is vital and essential and continues to transform itself – we’ve got all these great new young voices in movies, making the medium their own and moving it forward.”
Steven Spielberg also recently gave the duo his seal of approval: “I think it’s great that they had basically very little money, especially Obsession had under $1 million, and the other film had maybe 10 or nine, and they’re doing so well, and I just applaud them,” he shared previously.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.