AI firm Runway to mine Lionsgate’s library via first major pact with a studio
Lionsgate has struck a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) company Runway that will see the latter create and train a new AI model on the US studio’s catalogue of film and TV titles.
Michael Burns
The companies said the collaboration will “explore” the use of AI in film production through the creation of an AI model that “generates cinematic video that can be further iterated using Runway’s suite of controllable tools.”
They described the partnership as being “fundamentally designed to help Lionsgate Studios, its filmmakers, directors and other creative talent augment their work.”
While New York-based Runway and other AI companies have been talking to many of the US studios for months, this is the first publicly announced pact between an AI firm and a major Hollywood studio.
Lionsgate’s TV and film library spans some 20,000 titles, including film franchises The Hunger Games, John Wick, Twilight and Saw and series such as Mad Men and Ghosts. However, it does not exclusively own every title in its library, so it would appear that Runway will only be able to mine certain titles within the catalogue.
“Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilise AI to develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content-creation opportunities,” said Lionsgate vice-chair Michael Burns.
“Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process. We view AI as a great tool for augmenting, enhancing and supplementing our current operations.”
While last year’s US writers and actors strikes were, in many ways, caused and then prolonged by disagreements over how to put guardrails around the use of AI, this latest deal is evidence that the major studios are highly motivated to incorporate AI into their processes for creating, developing and producing content.
With Lionsgate announcing its pact with Runway, it appears likely that a slew of other studios and distributors will follow suit – potentially in short order.
In recent months, several studio heads have attempted to assuage fears that AI will replace jobs, with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos saying in the spring that “AI is not going to take your job. The person who uses AI well might take your job.”
Comments from Sarandos and others have done little to dampen fears across the industry – from creators to post-production workers – that studios and networks will use AI to slim down their workforces and hand creative control to computers.
Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said the company was “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.
He added: “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.
“Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work – we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”
