Lionsgate Signs Deal With AI Company Runway, Hopes That AI Can Eliminate Storyboard Artists and VFX Crews

Lionsgate has become the first significant Hollywood studio to go all-in on AI. The company today announced a “first-of-its-kind” partnership with AI research company Runway to create and train an exclusive new AI model based on its portfolio of film and tv content.

Lionsgate’s exclusive model will be used to generate what it calls “cinematic video” which can then be further iterated using Runway’s technology. The goal is to save money – “millions and millions of dollars” according to Lionsgate studio vice chairman Michael Burns – by having filmmakers and creators use its AI model to replace artists in production tasks such as storyboarding.

In corporate jargon terminology, Burns said that AI will be used to “develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities.” He added that “several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process.”

Burns also told the Wall Street Journal that he envisions the tool as a way to eventually replace vfx artists, and wants the model to be used to create backgrounds and special effects. “We do a lot of action movies, so we blow a lot of things up and that is one of the things Runway does,” he said.

Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said that the company is “committed to giving artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life,” adding that “the history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression. The best stories are yet to be told.”

Runway, it should be noted, is disliked by many members of the creative community and is currently being sued by a group of visual artists for copyright infringement.

Lionsgate provided scant details about what content it will use to train its models or how those materials can be used legally. While Lionsgate is primarily known for its live-action content, such as the John Wick, Twilight, and The Hunger Games, the company owns over 20,000 titles and has released plenty of animation throughout the years, including Astro Boy, Rock Dog, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and Norm of the North.