{"id":893632,"date":"2026-06-26T07:28:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893632\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T07:28:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:28:51","slug":"dallas-based-plotsy-the-actors-are-ai-the-people-pulling-the-strings-arent-dallas-innovates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893632\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas-Based Plotsy: The\u00a0Actors Are AI. The People Pulling the Strings Aren’t \u00bb Dallas Innovates"},"content":{"rendered":"

James would like you to know that he is \u201cone of the most good-looking actors you will see in AI.\u201d He says it in a crisp British accent, surrounded by cameras on a film set, with the charm of someone who\u2019s hosted a hundred junkets. Then he pulls back the curtain. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just copy and paste,\u201d he says. \u201cHere is the secret sauce. It\u2019s completely human supervised.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

James is not a human.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the narrator of a featurette from Dallas startup Plotsy<\/a>, which uses AI and a team of artists to bring books to the screen. He\u2019s also a cast member in the company\u2019s growing stable of AI actors, which Plotsy calls \u201cPlotsy Players.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a scripted blooper that makes a point, the machine-generated actor proves he\u2019s loose enough to joke. \u201cSorry, I forgot my line,\u201d he says. The take resets.<\/p>\n

It makes James the friendly face of a serious bet.<\/p>\n

Dallas-based Plotsy, co-founded by Teladoc<\/a> pioneer Michael Gorton, is emerging from stealth with a platform that turns books into episodic streaming videos. Its app, Plotsy.tv<\/a>, is set to reach the major app stores in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A still from the teaser for \u201cStarfighter Down,\u201d M.G. Herron\u2019s novel and Plotsy\u2019s first vBook. [Source: Plotsy \u201cStarfighter Down\u201d teaser]<\/p>\n

The first title, indie science-fiction author M.G. Herron\u2019s \u201cStarfighter Down<\/a>,\u201d begins streaming July 14, with new episodes weekly. Herron is the first author signed, with two more in the pipeline. Gorton said the company has raised $2 million in seed funding led by San Francisco-based Pier 88 and has hired Emmy-winning producer Christopher G. Cowen, who is relocating to Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat stories belong on screen as much as they belong on the page,\u201d Gorton said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re about to do will change how the industry thinks of books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now he wants to turn more books into what Plotsy calls \u201cvBooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that we\u2019re going to be able to do are going to disrupt Hollywood,\u201d Gorton said in an interview with Dallas Innovates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

James, shown here in Plotsy\u2019s featurette with a Martian looming behind him, was cast in the startup\u2019s \u201cWar of the Worlds\u201d proof of concept. [Source: Screenshot\/Plotsy YouTube]<\/p>\n

Proving it could work<\/p>\n

Earlier this year at Capital Factory in downtown Austin, founders and investors watched a screening of H.G. Wells\u2019 \u201cThe War of the Worlds\u201d that looked like it could have come from a big-budget streaming series. According to Gorton, most of the audience didn\u2019t realize the actors weren\u2019t real.<\/p>\n

Neither, of course, were the Martians. Every frame had been generated by a production system Plotsy built on top of multiple AI models. James, the AI actor from Plotsy\u2019s introductory featurette, appears here as the protagonist.<\/p>\n

What the founders wanted to know was whether AI could sustain a long, consistent, watchable story instead of just short clips. \u201cAnybody can make a short video, right?\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cBut to really do something that\u2019s long, you have to have consistent characters through the whole series.\u201d The test was a single hour-long episode, not a series, but it was enough.<\/p>\n

The software that produced it is what Fletcher calls the \u201cCineversion process.\u201d It\u2019s not an adaptation, he says, \u201cbecause it sticks loyal to the source material. So whatever is in the book is what\u2019s on the screen. That\u2019s our motto.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

H.G. Wells\u2019 \u201cThe War of the Worlds,\u201d rendered in Plotsy\u2019s featurette. Chapter one of the public-domain novel was the company\u2019s first test. [Source: Screenshot\/Plotsy YouTube]<\/p>\n

The project started late last year, when Gorton began experimenting with AI video and brought in Fletcher, a Texas television and streaming executive whose career included leadership roles at GAC Media and RIDE TV. They chose \u201cThe War of the Worlds,\u201d a public-domain novel they could use without licensing costs. Their goal was to create a full-length episode with consistent characters and enough visual quality to stand alongside a modern streaming series.<\/p>\n

Gorton had built on emerging technology before. Beyond Teladoc, which introduced telemedicine years before virtual doctor visits became common, he\u2019s launched 17 companies spanning digital health, solar power, internet services, space education, and other fields. He\u2019s also a novelist, with more than a dozen books to his name, most of them science fiction. That gives him firsthand experience with one of the problems Plotsy is trying to solve: Most books, especially self-published ones, never make it to the screen.<\/p>\n

It was a proof of concept, Gorton says. But \u201cthe demo is just that, a demo,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten an order of magnitude better in the last couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The book was better\u2019<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard it, and most of us have probably said it ourselves, Gorton says: \u201cThe book was better.\u201d The technology is one part of the equation, but Plotsy needed someone who understood authors.<\/p>\n

He found that in Lynn McGinnis, a publishing and author-marketing veteran who joined Plotsy as chief publishing officer. She works with authors, helps choose which books the company pursues, and, ultimately, has to persuade writers that putting their work on screen doesn\u2019t have to mean losing what made it work on the page.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve effectively created the fourth book format,\u201d said McGinnis, placing vBooks alongside print, ebooks, and audiobooks.<\/p>\n

McGinnis, a three-decade book-marketing veteran, says the goal isn\u2019t to replace any of those formats. It\u2019s to give readers another way to experience the same story. \u201cWhat it does is it makes the book more accessible,\u201d McGinnis said. \u201cPeople have preferences for how they consume their content.\u201d Her model is that attention compounds across formats. She saw it happen with the novel and movie \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d: \u201cThere were new readers, because the movie came out, and everybody was talking about it, and then all of a sudden, everybody had to buy the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also familiar with the complaint that follows so many movie adaptations. \u201cThat\u2019s where you get that, \u2018Wow, the book was so much better,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Plotsy approaches the work differently. \u201cIt\u2019s really a translation. We\u2019re translating the book from page to screen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Plotsy, she says, wants viewers to come away thinking the vBook felt like the book.<\/p>\n

Building the world<\/p>\n

Every vBook begins with the author. The goal, the company says, is to produce the whole book as an episodic series, not condense it into a two-hour cut. Fletcher said the team works through the principal characters, casts AI actors, runs screen tests, and shows the results to the author before production moves forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes this AI actor really capture this character?\u201d Fletcher asks.<\/p>\n

James, the AI narrator in Plotsy\u2019s featurette, described the company\u2019s proprietary Cineversion software as the blueprint, first generating a screenplay. \u201cNow we build the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said that while the software creates that blueprint, people shape the finished work. Writers oversee the story. Editors assemble scenes, adjust color, and add sound and music. Directors guide the production from start to finish.<\/p>\n

The goal, James says, is a film whose \u201cheart beats exactly as the author intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Plotsy\u2019s Cineversion process turns a book\u2019s prose into a screenplay with timed \u201cvisual beats,\u201d a step the company says a human writer supervises. [Source: Screenshot\/Plotsy YouTube]<\/p>\n

That human role also shapes the company\u2019s approach to copyright, Fletcher says. He pointed to recent U.S. Copyright Office guidance distinguishing between fully automated AI output and work shaped by human creative control.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as human artists are shaping and editing and putting things together and have that creative control, then you can copyright it,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cWhat you can\u2019t do is just put one prompt into an engine and output a video and then copyright that video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Plotsy\u2019s process runs through writers, editors, and directors, Fletcher says, each episode can be copyrighted the way a studio production would be.<\/p>\n

For authors, another path to the screen<\/p>\n

Gorton knows how rarely books make it to the screen. He\u2019s written more than a dozen novels himself, and he believes the biggest obstacle isn\u2019t a lack of stories. Plotsy offers another path.<\/p>\n

Plotsy is starting with independent authors who have already found readers but may never see a traditional film or television deal. Fletcher says the company expects their readers to become its first audience. \u201cThey read the book, they bought the book. They\u2019re fans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re able to see the vision that they will never see if Hollywood makes it,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir fans get to experience it that they would never get if Hollywood adapts it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authors stay involved throughout the process, Fletcher said, describing a model where authors keep the rights to their books while sharing in the revenue from the finished vBook.<\/p>\n

Unlike some audiobook projects, Plotsy is not asking authors to pay for production. \u201cWe\u2019re not asking the authors to pay,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cThey can\u2019t afford what it costs us to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Human editors handle Plotsy\u2019s post-production, adding color, sound and music. [Source: Screenshot\/Plotsy YouTube]<\/p>\n

A different equation for runtime<\/p>\n

Gorton has an engineering background, so when he explains why he thinks Plotsy works, he starts with the math. The company\u2019s one-hour \u201cWar of the Worlds\u201d demonstration took 382 man-hours to produce, he said. By comparison, Gorton estimates a major studio film such as \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d required roughly 3.25 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means two things,\u201d he said. \u201cHow long did it take?\u201d and \u201cHow much did it cost?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gorton says those numbers are moving quickly. His goal is to cut the 382-hour figure nearly in half by the end of the year. \u201cThat starts creating real disruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He estimates the first vBook will cost about $200,000 to produce, a figure he expects to fall to roughly one-quarter of that within 18 months as the technology and production process improve.<\/p>\n

The figures are Gorton\u2019s estimates, based on Plotsy\u2019s own production work and his comparison with a major Hollywood film. He also acknowledges Hollywood productions involve union structures that Plotsy doesn\u2019t have to navigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Hollywood does something, there are 16 unions that you have to hurdle through just to get to your end movie,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t have any of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

A different kind of economics could also change how audiences watch Plotsy\u2019s serialized stories. \u201cI don\u2019t want to watch the 10 episodes in season one and then wait a year and a half for the next season,\u201d Gorton said.<\/p>\n

Instead, Plotsy plans to launch a new vBook with several episodes available immediately and release the rest weekly. Fletcher said building from existing book series should also let the company move more quickly from one installment to the next than a traditional television production.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes the app really sticky,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our actors, we have our sets,\u201d James says in Plotsy\u2019s featurette. The company plans to own its \u201cPlotsy Players\u201d outright. [Source: Screenshot\/Plotsy YouTube]<\/p>\n

Best supporting asset: Actors you can own<\/p>\n

If the books are the source material, the AI actors are another asset Plotsy plans to build.<\/p>\n

Fletcher says the company\u2019s Plotsy Players, like James, have names and can appear beyond a single title. Over time, he adds, Plotsy could develop those actors as characters with their own followings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll have social media accounts,\u201d Fletcher envisioned. \u201cCoca-Cola can hire them as a spokesperson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher says Plotsy sees those AI actors as part of the company\u2019s intellectual property. \u201cWe\u2019re going to own our AI actors,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be our IP.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s different from some other AI-actor efforts, Fletcher said, which have tried to move synthetic performers into the traditional Hollywood system. He pointed to union issues as one reason Plotsy is taking another route. <\/p>\n

SAG-AFTRA has said studios and union signatories would have to compensate the union for AI actors as if they were human performers, Fletcher says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not our model,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

James explains concept art and storyboards for a Plotsy adaptation. The company builds locations and characters before a Plotsy director sets framing, camera moves, and lighting. [Source: Screenshot\/Plotsy YouTube]<\/p>\n

Filling out the cast<\/p>\n

As Plotsy moved from experiment to product, Gorton recruited people from publishing, television, finance, and Hollywood production.<\/p>\n

The latest is the aforementioned Christopher G. Cowen, an Emmy-winning producer who spent more than eight years at Tom Hanks\u2019 Playtone, where he worked on projects including \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d and \u201cThe Polar Express.\u201d Cowen joined Plotsy as chief content officer and executive producer and is relocating from Los Angeles to Dallas. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the absolute GOAT producers in Hollywood,\u201d Gorton told us, adding that he wanted someone who understood the demands of long-form production. \u201cHe did \u2018Apollo 13,\u2019 he did \u2018From Earth to the Moon,\u2019 he did \u2018Gettysburg,\u2019 \u2018Band of Brothers,\u2019 \u2018Polar Express.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Other hires were closer to home, literally. Co-founder and Chief Financial Officer Will McDade, the former finance chief at Interstate Batteries, is Gorton\u2019s next-door neighbor. \u201cI literally stand on the fence and talk to him in his backyard,\u201d Gorton said. When Gorton showed McDade an early demo, the decision came quickly. \u201cHe took one look, and he goes, \u2018I\u2019m in,\u2019\u201d Gorton said.<\/p>\n

The broader team includes head of production Cenk Kilar, whose visual-effects work includes stints at Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital, according to the company, and legal counsel Quentin Faust, a Cornell-trained attorney and former big-firm partner who serves as in-house counsel.<\/p>\n

Backing the launch<\/p>\n

Plotsy\u2019s launch is backed by its $2 million seed funding round led by San Francisco investment firm Pier 88, with about $1.5 million committed so far. An earlier friends-and-family round was oversubscribed, he said. <\/p>\n

Gorton believes the current raise will be enough to get the company to revenue.<\/p>\n

Interest, he says, is already coming from outside publishing. After Plotsy demonstrated \u201cThe War of the Worlds\u201d at Capital Factory, a three-star general asked Gorton to make a movie. \u201cSo we\u2019re doing a movie for him right now,\u201d Gorton said, based on a screenplay one of the general\u2019s clients had written.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Gorton onstage at Plotsy\u2019s first public reveal, at Capital Factory in downtown Austin. Robert Blount, CEO of Austin-based Speed City Broadcasting, who attended, called the company \u201ca massive industry disrupter\u201d in a LinkedIn post. [Source: Robert Blount via LinkedIn]<\/p>\n

One book at a time<\/p>\n

As noted above, Gorton is a novelist himself. His \u201cTachyon Tunnel\u201d series, he says, has earned bestseller status and more than 15 literary awards.<\/p>\n

So will one of his own books become a vBook? Not yet, he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the founding CEO, but the decision maker for this is Lynn,\u201d Gorton joked. \u201cI don\u2019t qualify yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGinnis added that part of her job is making sure he eventually does.<\/p>\n

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\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n