Polish director Patryk Vega turned to artificial intelligence for his biopic because Russian President Vladimir Putin was not available to play the lead role.
The ground-breaking movie has a deepfake of the ruler's face placed on the body of a real actor; the trailer opens with the leader cowering on a floor in diapers.
"To come extremely close to the dictator, we needed Putin, not an actor with make-up," At the Cannes Film Festival, where he has been pitching the movie to distributors, Vega told AFP.
"I called Putin and asked him if he wanted to play in my movie... No, that was a joke."
Vega, a 47-year-old filmmaker of numerous popular Polish movies, utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to create the face alone because he lacked the high-resolution pictures necessary for a full-body deepfake.
The outcomes are strange.
Before the movie's September launch, the makers of "Putin" claim that it has already been sold in 50 countries.
The movie chronicles the ruler's life across six decades, starting when he witnesses his stepfather beating him when he is ten years old.
"In the end I show his death. A happy end," said Vega.
Vega had the original notion in the early days of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
“"First I wanted to do a movie about the Russian mafia. Then I decided to do it about the biggest gangster," he said.”
He dismissed any worries about retaliation.
"Putin should be afraid of me," he said.
Tech fears
He claims that directors may send him footage and he can add actors, crowds, and a variety of other things. Having invented the technology, he wants to share it with others.
The months-long walkout by writers and actors last year revolved around this topic, which culminated in a hard-fought agreement with studios that included payments to actors whose likenesses generated by artificial intelligence were exploited.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that while several studios currently make substantial use of AI—for example, de-aging stars like Harrison Ford in the most recent "Indiana Jones" film—they are reluctant to discuss it candidly.
Some uses are harder to vilify.
An algorithm was created by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to search scripts for prejudice, taking into account factors like the frequency of female character speech and the presence of LGBTQ characters.
For the past ten years, YouTube, a crucial partner in the film industry's promotion and distribution, has been utilizing AI for tasks like copyright protection and automated subtitles. At the same time, it is quickly increasing the range of AI tools that are accessible to aspiring filmmakers.
It has been labeling AI-generated content since April and is expanding its detection efforts.
"AI won't replace creativity," stated Justine Ryst, the head of YouTube France. It will make the impossible feasible and simplify the difficult.
"We need to want to be bold and disruptive, but also responsible," she added.
