Cannes, France (AFP) – When Russian President Vladimir Putin was unable to star in a biopic, Polish director Patrick Vega turned to artificial intelligence.
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The trailer for this groundbreaking film begins with a leader crouched on the floor in a diaper, and features a deepfake of his face grafted onto the body of a real actor.
“We needed Putin, not an actor in makeup, to get very close to the dictator,” Vega told AFP at the Cannes Film Festival.
“I called President Putin and asked him if he wanted to be in my film… No, it was a joke.”
Vega, a 47-year-old director who has directed several hit Polish films, didn't have enough high-resolution images for a full-body deepfake, so he used AI to generate only the face.
The results are amazing.
The producers of the film, simply called “Putin,” say it has already been sold in 50 countries ahead of its September release.
The film follows the ruler's life over 60 years, starting when he was caught being beaten by his stepfather at the age of 10.
“We show him dying at the end. It's a happy ending,” Vega said.
The initial idea came to Vega in the first days of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
“At first I wanted to make a movie about the Russian Mafia. Then I decided to make a movie about the biggest gangster,” he said.
He dismissed concerns about retaliation.
“President Putin should be afraid of me,” he said.
fear of technology
Having developed the technology, he wants to share it with others, and says that directors can send him footage and add crowds, actors, and many other elements.
This idea is a big concern in Hollywood, where AI could lead to the loss of many jobs, especially for special effects technicians and extras.
This was a key issue in last year's months-long strike by actors and writers, which ended in a hard-fought agreement with studios that included a promise to pay actors if their AI-generated likenesses were used.
However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, many studios are already making extensive use of AI, including using it to de-age actors like Harrison Ford in the previous Indiana Jones movie. However, they are afraid to talk about it openly.
Some usages are hard to denigrate.
The Geena Davis Media and Gender Institute has developed an algorithm that scans scripts for bias, such as how often female characters speak or how many LGBTQ characters they include.
YouTube, a leading promotion and distribution partner for the film industry, has been using AI for automated subtitles, copyright protection, and more for a decade, and is rapidly expanding the AI tools available to budding filmmakers. .
Since April, the company has been labeling AI-generated content and enhancing its detection program.
“AI will not take over creation,” said Justin List, head of YouTube France. “It will simplify the complex and make the impossible possible.
“We need to be bold and disruptive, but also responsible,” she added.
© 2024 AFP
