Director Peter Jackson, a visual effects visionary as much as a master storyteller, says he’s not particularly worried about the impact of AI tools on the future of filmmaking.
“AI, used the right way, is just a tool like any other,” Jackson said Wednesday morning at the Cannes Film Festival. “But like anything else, it’s going to depend on the person’s imagination and originality, you know, as they input instructions into the AI program.”
“Is it really interesting? Is it funny? Is it imaginative? Is it put together well to make a story or narrative?” Jackson continued. “Some people will make really great films, and some people will do exactly the same process, and their films will be bad – just like regular films.”
Jackson compared the AI to the early stop-motion technology used to create the original King Kong And Ray Harryhausen’s films – pioneering examples of the fantasy filmmaking he famously adores – suggest that he’s clueless about tools, provided the results are imaginative.
“It was done through stop motion by someone moving a rubber creature,” he added. “Why can’t someone on a computer using AI software create their own images?”
Jackson brought his beloved character to the Côte d’Azur to accept the honorary Palme d’Or at the glitzy Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony on Tuesday night. He participated in a wide-ranging panel discussion the next morning, discussing how his early classics were made (Bad taste, Get to know the vulnerable and Brain dead), the Lord of the Rings and The hobbit Trilogy, and his recent documentary projects, incl The Beatles: Back. As at Tuesday’s ceremony, the legendary Kiwi director had his support Lord of the Rings Star Elijah Wood in conversation, as the actor sits among a few hundred fans inside the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.
Jackson gave Wood a sweet tribute from the stage as he discussed the most critical phase of his career – when he agreed to direct three big-budget fantasy films in a row on a scale of budget and artistic complexity that the New Zealand film industry had never even remotely attempted to achieve. He remembers being always in a state of despair driving from his home to the set every morning, full of doubts about how he would handle the day’s scenes.
“I have to say, the one thing about Elijah, more than any other actor, is that I would show up on set and he would be relentlessly cheerful every day,” Jackson said, pointing to his friend and former leading man in the audience. “He was like, ‘Okay, let’s get this done! What are we going to do?’
“He was always there to help me make the movie I wanted to make,” Jackson continued. “Some actors kind of show up and have this whole idea of what they want to make, but Elijah was just there to collaborate, and he has this upbeat energy. So, no matter how frustrated I was when I arrived and got out of the car, he was there, like, ‘Hey, how’s it going!'” Having a cheerful person there was very helpful.
Jackson also provided updates while talking about his feature film project Tintin, Andy Serkis’ upcoming feature The Lord of the Rings: The Search for Gollum A potential World War II film and feature he hopes to produce revolves around the Dambusters Raid.
“We’re actually writing the next Tintin movie now,” he said. “The deal was that Stephen [Spielberg] He directs one and I direct another. So Stephen directed his film, and then for 15 years I didn’t direct my film.
“I feel very embarrassed about it,” he continued. “Stephen is nice enough not to push me a bit, but I know I want to make it right. So I’ve been working with Fran [Walsh] On to another Tintin text. “I was writing this in the hotel room here just a few days ago.”
On Sarkis Search for GollumJackson said he was happy to step aside and let the legendary motion capture performer — best known for his role as Gollum in the original film — perform Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Direct the sub-feature by itself.
“I thought, well, this story would actually be more interesting if Gollum directed it himself — and Andy is as close as you’re going to get,” Jackson said. “The film is an inside story about Gollum’s psyche and the kind of addiction he suffers from. It’s a very personal story of Gollum’s character. So I thought, well, Andy knows this guy better than anyone.”
“I didn’t think much about the idea of doing it at all,” he continued. “I thought the most exciting version of this movie would be if Andy Serkis made it, because it would bring a Gollum psychology to the screen that you can’t imagine.”
“I mean, I’m there to help when I can help,” he added. “If I can help at certain times and answer questions, I’m there. But I don’t interfere.”
Jackson said he also hopes to make a World War II film soon about Operation Punishment, known as the Dambusters Raid, the high-stakes British bombing of German hydroelectric dams in 1943.
“It’s a really amazing story about invention and problem-solving to try to achieve a goal,” Jackson said, referring to the 1955 British film. Dam busters about the historical incident, but adding that the full story still needs to be told because British documents about the raid were still secret during the making of this somewhat fictional film earlier.
“The real story is actually more interesting,” he said.
“Waste destroyers It was actually the movie I was supposed to do until I finished doing it The hobbit “—And then I traded other films after that,” Jackson explained Dam busters It’s sitting there in the back of my mind, so I’d like to do that soon.
Jackson also balanced his views on AI elsewhere in his talk with some caveats, noting that he’s “not talking about AI in general, like the thing that might destroy the world,” but just its applications in the world of movies.
“For me, it’s just a special effect,” he said. “It’s no different from any other special effect.”
He added: “The one thing I think is extremely important in the field of artificial intelligence is that you do not do an AI version of the actor without their specific consent.”
Jackson likened AI licensing of identity rights to any other form of licensing in traditional filmmaking.
“You can’t play music, or a song in a movie, unless you own the rights to that song,” he said. “And you can’t adapt a book unless you obtain a license for the book.” “So you shouldn’t be able to show someone’s face through AI technology without anyone’s consent – whether it’s the person themselves, or their property if they’re dead.”
“I mean it’s really straightforward. I don’t know. I don’t see any concern about it,” he added.
