Christopher Nolan is not worried about leaving the future of filmmaking in the hands of younger generations, so long as they continue to reject “AI slop.”
The Oscar-winning Oppenheimer director, 55, is a prominent critic of the technology, often warning of its “terrifying possibilities.” While he has acknowledged certain benefits to its use in moviemaking, he has maintained his preference for practical effects and in-camera filming techniques.
Despite the growing push to rely on AI in nearly every aspect of life, Nolan said he has noticed a “rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology” among younger filmmakers, a trend he feels bodes well for the future of art.
“So much energy has been expended on bringing in AI, but if you look at that generation’s reaction, they’re utterly rejecting it,” the British director said in a new interview with The Telegraph, citing 21-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons and 26-year-old Obsession director Curry Barker as examples of younger filmmakers’ embracing practical effects.
He added that his four young adult children — Flora, Rory, Magnus, and Oliver, whom he shares with his wife and longtime producing partner Emma Thomas — also have an “immediate and harsh” reaction to AI.
“They see it for what it is very quickly — and it’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well,” Nolan explained, clarifying, “And while that doesn’t mean that every aspect of the technology is useless or meaningless, in filmmaking it’s hitting at exactly the wrong time.”
He further argued that “after years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling.”
Nolan is famous for avoiding excessive digital technology in his work, and he relied on visual effects and practical effects to create characters in his next movie, The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem.
Out in theaters next Friday, The Odyssey stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson and Elliot Page. The movie follows Odysseus’s (Damon) decade-long journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War as he battles monsters, gods and other mythical foes while his wife Penelope (Hathaway) fends off suitors and son Telemachus (Holland) searches for him.
The film has already won over early viewers, with many praising it as “staggering,” “breathtaking” and “a filmmaking feast.”
The Independent’s chief film and TV correspondent Jacob Stolworthy described it as “Nolan’s biggest film to date.”
“This film has about triple the number of huge set pieces than any of Nolan’s previous films, and every single one of them is breathtaking in their own way,” he said. “In The Odyssey, Nolan showcases visual trickery in a way you’ve never seen before.”
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