‘Stop! That! Train!’ director denies AI claims: “Not one job was taken out of human hands”
Adam Shankman, the director of the new movie Stop! That! Train!, has rubbished claims that the film used AI.
The new film, which stars RuPaul, is set to arrive in cinemas in the United States on June 12th, and has been caught up in an AI-storm in recent days, causing Shankman to issue a statement in response.
Taking to Instagram, the director wrote, “Hey everyone! Every shot in Stop! That! Train! was made by human hands! It’s come to my attention that there is some on-line speculation that Stop! That! Train! Is full of fully generative AI shots and I’m here to tell you this is patently not true.”
Shankman then insisted, “There are a sum total of ZERO shots conceived by AI in the movie. We employed hundreds of VFX artists who all killed themselves getting this out for release and not one job was taken out of human hands.”
He added, “The movie is a fully human made piece of joy and laughter. Take it in and enjoy it yall! We need the laughter!”
One of the most prominent critics of Stop! That! Train! was VFX artist Gloria Cook, who took to Letterboxd to accuse the film of using AI, she wrote, “If the film wasn’t bad enough on its own, it’s one of the most conspicuous uses of AI I’ve seen in a film, with a lot of VFX looking like gen AI and doubt about how much of the obvious stock footage might also be.”
Cook added, “(Confirmed in the end credits that Acme AI was the top billed VFX company on the film)”.
Only last week, Rogue Wars: A Star Wars Story and Jurassic Park Rebirth director Gareth Edwards heaped enormous praise on AI, declaring, “It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be better than CGI.”
Even Martin Scorsese appears to have hopped aboard the AI train, becoming a partner of the image generation company, Black Forest Labs, earlier this week.
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