Steven Soderbergh to Incorporate AI in His Spanish-American War Film
Legendary filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is diving into the late 19th century for his next project, a film centered on the Spanish-American War, while simultaneously looking toward the future by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into the production process.
Soderbergh shared that he intends to utilize “a lot of AI” for this upcoming project, which he describes as “a really good story” featuring actor Wagner Moura in a leading role. “It’s a really good story, and nobody’s really done it,” he explained in an interview with Filmmaker Magazine. “Every day that goes by it becomes more timely.”
The director emphasized the importance of casting, noting, “I’ve just got to get it cast. I’ve got Wagner Moura. I need a few more people. I have two studios circling, but it’s all about how much I can do it for. But if I can get the right cast together, that will eventize it, and people will feel they have to see it now rather than waiting two months until it streams. It’s a weird time to be making movies.”
While in the midst of completing a documentary on John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Soderbergh revealed that he has also “been working with AI lately” in this film. “It’s worth talking about what that technology might be good at,” he said.
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Soderbergh elaborated on the advantages of AI, stating, “AI has been helpful in creating thematically surreal images that occupy a dream space rather than a literal space. And that’s been really fun because you need a Ph.D. in literature to tell it what to do. But like every other piece of technology, it desperately requires very close human supervision.”
He also mentioned that 90% of the documentary relies on archival stills, while “10 minutes, spread out over the 90-minute film, are these little pockets of images we created whenever they start talking philosophically. When there’s no literal component to what they’re saying, then I create these images that are kind of a surreal version of what their words try to transmit.”
The adoption of AI in Hollywood remains a contentious issue. In this context, SAG-AFTRA has recently endorsed the Trump administration’s AI policy framework, which advocates for congressional action on various matters including parental controls, intellectual property rights protection, First Amendment protections, and expanding AI workforce development.
