First AI Feature Is ‘Two Years Away,’ Has Perfect Script

Paul Schrader is ready to embrace artificial intelligence in filmmaking, saying in a new interview that he has the “perfect script to do all AI.”

The 79-year-old “Taxi Driver” writer and “First Reformed” director told Vanity Fair that in his opinion, movies are “going to be more and more AI,” adding: “I think we’re only two years away from the first AI feature.”

In fact, he continued: “I was just on the phone with someone today about a script I had, and I said, ‘You know, this would be a perfect script to do all AI.’”

AI has Hollywood buzzing at the moment with the news of Tilly Norwood, the first “AI actress,” and even a fully AI-directed film. When asked by Vanity Fair about his willingness to embrace the technology himself, Schrader said that “it’s just a tool.”

“When you’re an author, you have to describe someone’s reaction. You use a code — you use a code of words, a certain number of letters, and so forth, and you express their facial reaction,” he continued. “An actor has their own code. Well, now you’re a pixelator, and you can create the face, and you can create the emotion on the face, and you can sculpt it the same way an author sculpts the reaction in a novel or a story.”

Schrader also said that “AI is taking over film coverage” and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was soon writing film reviews. “AI does better coverage than the average coverage. And AI doesn’t have to favor anybody,” he said. “Often, when you’re doing coverage, you get a hint that the person who’s paying you wants you to like this. You can’t give that information to AI.”

This isn’t the first time Schrader has supported the use of AI in the film business. Earlier this year, he posted on Facebook that he asked ChatGPT to generate plots for movies by famous filmmakers, including himself, and was impressed by the results.

“I’M STUNNED,” he wrote. “I just asked chatgpt for ‘an idea for Paul Schrader film.’ Then Paul Thomas Anderson. Then Quentin Tarantino. Then Harmony Korine. Then Ingmar Bergman. Then Rossellini. Lang. Scorsese. Murnau. Capra. Ford. Speilberg [sic]. Lynch. Every idea chatgpt came up with (in a few seconds) was good. And original. And fleshed out. Why should writers sit around for months searching for a good idea when AI can provide one in seconds?”

Read Schrader’s full Vanity Fair interview here.