BlockBeats News, April 16th, according to The Wrap, a $70 million movie about the mysterious founder of Bitcoin quietly completed principal photography last month in a “grey box” in London that looked like a warehouse facility. On the surface, this is a fairly standard commercial film—directed by Doug Liman, starring Gal Gadot, Pete Davidson, Casey Affleck, and Isla Fisher—telling a global thriller story about the search for the identity of the decentralized cryptocurrency inventor. But it has one key difference: “Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know It” is described as the first entirely AI-generated, studio-level feature film.
Acme AI & FX produced this independent film. According to the production team, the film was shot in a custom-built studio in 20 days and was made using AI technology, allowing what could have been a project with traditional production costs of up to $300 million to be completed on a more manageable budget. While the on-set backgrounds and lighting were generated by AI, the actors’ performances themselves were not altered. They wore costumes that would eventually appear on screen, and Casey Affleck also underwent wig and makeup styling before filming. What the audience will see is the original footage of the actors’ authentic performances.
“The performance is the performance itself,” producer Ryan Kavanaugh said. “We captured the performance in a very unique way, where this AI process captures the actor’s performance as the core and then builds everything within that performance framework.” While the producer refused to disclose the specific procedures used by AI, he stated that this is a “brand-new approach” used to insert and integrate actor performances with all background elements.
To produce “Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know It”—which is set to be presented to buyers at the Cannes International Film Festival in May—the production reportedly employed a total of 107 actors, 100 crew members, and 54 non-filming staff. While this scale is relatively common in independent films, large commercial films often require thousands of staff to complete production. Director Doug Liman is currently in the 30-week post-production phase, which will involve 55 AI artists. Producer Lawrence Grey explained, “AI will not replace human involvement,” and added, “Human involvement is absolutely essential throughout the entire process.”
