Image / Miramax Films
Roger Avary recounts how, after years of closed doors in traditional cinema, artificial intelligence suddenly rekindled investor interest. With his new AI production company, the Pulp Fiction screenwriter already has three films in the works.
When traditional cinema stalls and AI opens doors
As a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience, Roger Avary, the legendary screenwriter of Pulp Fiction, spoke candidly about the difficulties he encountered in getting new projects off the ground through traditional Hollywood channels. “I go around trying to get movies made, and it’s almost impossible,” he explained, describing an increasingly cautious, slow, and risk-averse system, especially when it comes to projects that are not already established franchises.
The turning point came last year, when Avary decided to found General Cinema Dynamics, a production company focused on developing films made with the help of artificial intelligence. Not so much—at least in his words—to replace human creativity, but to tap into a financial enthusiasm that seemed to suddenly reignite. “I built a technology company making films with AI, and suddenly, boom: money started pouring in,” he said. “Just by putting the word ‘AI’ in front of it and presenting it as a technology company, investors came. We are now in production on three films.”
Avary emphasizes this contrast several times: “It was very easy to get this off the ground, but it was very difficult to start a traditional film following the classic path.” This statement paints a rather grim picture of the current state of the industry, where perceived innovation seems to count more than experience or track record.
Three films, many questions, and an industry in limbo
The three projects currently in development under Avary’s IA label cover very different genres: a Christmas movie for families intended for theaters during the upcoming holidays, a religious-themed feature film designed for the Easter season, and an ambitious epic romance set in a war context. The titles are still unnamed, but they are already enough to demonstrate how AI is now seen as a productive lever capable of accelerating processes and attracting capital.
At the same time, the Avary case is part of an increasingly heated debate in Hollywood. Enthusiasm for artificial intelligence coexists with deep fears, especially after recent episodes that have caused controversy throughout the industry. In particular, a video went viral in which a user, starting with a prompt of just two lines, used Seedance 2.0 to generate a hyper-realistic video showing Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt.
The reaction was swift. The Motion Picture Association issued a harsh statement against ByteDance, the parent company of the video generator, accusing it of “large-scale unauthorized use of copyrighted works.” The statement reads: “By launching a service with no real safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is ignoring a copyright law that protects creators and supports millions of jobs in the United States. ByteDance should immediately cease these activities.”
In this scenario, Avary’s words take on a double meaning. On the one hand, they describe a real opportunity for those who struggle to find space in the traditional system; on the other, they raise urgent questions about what it really means to “make movies” in an era when all it takes is a technological acronym to turn an idea into a production.
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