Hollywood, and the Shocking Return of the Real
Barbenheimer, streaming, strikes, AI, and the future of cinema — out now in The Spectator
“If studios want to return to the Golden Days, and make Barbenheimer the norm, they could put guiderails in place for the use of AI, increase payouts to actors, writers, and directors on streamed properties, and reallocate their finances towards mid-budget films, with real stunts and effects, made by distinctive artists. If film studios give new directors modest to medium budgets to make new properties, and those artists use AI to speed up their production pipeline, we could have a renaissance of independent film-making (particularly science fiction); and it would earn studios billions.
Then again, Hollywood is stubborn. Rather than come to the table and end the strikes, studios are choosing to lose momentum, and push films until next year. Some of this is excuse making — it seems nobody at Sony thought the next Spiderverse film had any chance of releasing next March, so the push wasn’t really prompted by the strikes. Some of it isn’t though.”
Out now in The Spectator: my piece on using a tablet for a month, and why I wish I didn’t have to use a phone. Give it a read!