Amazon-backed AI firm plans to recreate lost Orson Welles film footage using AI

• Amazon-backed AI company Showrunner announces plan to reconstruct 43 minutes of lost footage from Orson Welles' 1942 film "The Magnificent Ambersons."

• Orson Welles estate condemns the project as a "publicity stunt," saying they weren't consulted and AI cannot replace human creativity.

• The project will use hybrid approach combining AI-generated footage with live actors and digital face-swapping technology.

• Company CEO declares AI represents "possibly the end of human creativity" and predicts future entertainment created entirely by artificial intelligence.

An Amazon-backed artificial intelligence company has sparked controversy by announcing plans to reconstruct 43 minutes of lost footage from Orson Welles' classic 1942 film "The Magnificent Ambersons," drawing sharp criticism from the legendary director's estate.

Amazon-backed startup unveils ambitious AI reconstruction project

Fable, founded and helmed by Edward Saatchi, developed the AI-generated TV show service, Showrunner, which will be used over the next two years to re-create Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons. The film had nearly a third of its footage burned by RKO Pictures executives after Welles conceded his rights to the final cut.

Edward Saatchi, CEO of Amazon-backed startup Fable, sees AI as "possibly the end of human creativity," at least as an exclusive phenomenon. And no, he doesn't believe that's a bad thing. The executive made these comments during a Friday appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" to announce the ambitious project.

"What's coming is a world where we're not the only creative species," Saatchi said, "and that we will enjoy entertainment created by AIs. So, we wanted to train our AI on the greatest storyteller of the past 200 years, Orson Welles."

"The goal isn't to commercialize the 43 minutes, but to see them exist in the world after 80 years of people asking 'might this have been the best film ever made in its original form?'" Saatchi explained. The effort won't be commercialized because Showrunner hasn't obtained the rights to the film from Warner Bros. Discovery or Concord.

Welles estate condemns project as "disappointing" publicity stunt

The Orson Welles estate responded with sharp criticism, revealing they were not consulted about the project. In a statement to Variety, David Reeder of Reeder Brand Management, who handles the estate for Beatrice Welles, said that he was not informed of Fable's plans to tackle "Magnificent Ambersons."

"In general, the estate has embraced AI technology to create a voice model intended to be used for VO work with brands. That said, this attempt to generate publicity on the back of Welles' creative genius is disappointing, especially as we weren't even given the courtesy of a heads up," a spokesperson for the Welles estate wrote.

"While AI is inevitable, it still cannot replace the creative instincts resident in the human mind, which means this effort to make Ambersons whole will be a purely mechanical exercise without any of the uniquely innovative thinking or a creative force like Welles."

Technical approach combines AI with traditional filmmaking

Showrunner's endeavor will deploy a fusion of AI and traditional film techniques to reconstruct the lost footage. This includes shooting some sequences with live actors, with plans to use face and pose transfer techniques with AI tools to preserve the likenesses of the original actors in the movie. Extensively archived set photos from the film will serve as the foundation for re-creating the scenes.

Helping to spearhead the project is Brian Rose, a filmmaker who's spent the last five years re-creating 30,000 missing frames from the movie. "There was, for example, a four-minute-long, unbroken moving camera shot whose loss is a tragedy," Rose said in a statement, per the Hollywood Reporter.

The original film's tragic history adds urgency to the project. The Magnificent Ambersons was filmed in 1941 at RKO's Gower Street Studios, now Sunset Gower Studios, in Los Angeles. The original cut was 131 minutes long, but Welles had conceded the right to the final cut. And once RKO took over editing, it deleted almost a third of the negatives for the film without the director's approval to free vault space.

Industry implications and future of AI in entertainment

Saatchi acknowledges the disruption but sees it as a "huge revenue generator" for studios, saying that his company has talked with Disney and other large players. The goal would be to have IP holders, including filmmakers and writers, included in that revenue opportunity.

Computers generating original work "is something Warhol would have found very exciting, DaVinci," Saatchi said. "The idea that AI can be creative and that you can create a work of art that creates more works of art is really exciting."

The project represents a significant test case for AI's role in film restoration and creation. Saatchi was quoted as saying, "Year by year, the technology is getting closer to prompting entire films with AI.' He believes that Showrunner's new model is a "step toward a scary, strange future of generative storytelling."

"This painstaking AI reconstruction over the next two years aims to get as close as possible to Welles' exact vision – as close as possible without finding the destroyed footage." Saatchi said in a press release.

The controversy highlights growing tensions in Hollywood over AI's expanding role in creative industries, particularly following recent strikes by writers and actors who sought protections against AI displacement of human jobs.

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