In 2022, Ben Affleck’s obsession with AI in filmmaking led him to quietly start his own film technology company, Interpositive.
Netflix put the spotlight on the startup Thursday morning by announcing its full acquisition of the company. InterPositive’s mission, which focuses on developing “AI-powered tools built by filmmakers, for filmmakers” and using new technologies to “protect and expand creative choice,” will now be exclusive to Netflix. In a news release, the streamer said it is “investing in creator-led innovation that keeps filmmakers at the center of the process.”
Netflix announced that it would bring together InterPostive’s entire team as part of the acquisition, with Affleck remaining as a senior advisor.
“The Interpositive team is joining Netflix because of our shared belief that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them,” said Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s chief product and technology officer. “InterPositive’s superior technology is purpose-built to enable filmmakers and showrunners to work with tools that naturally support their creative vision and how they want to realize it.”
Affleck, known for films such as 2012’s “Argo,” “Pearl Harbor” (2001) and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), said that before he founded the company, he knew that AI technology on production was inadequate in many ways.
In launching Interpositive, the 53-year-old actor said he wanted to continue “human storytelling.” So he collaborated with a group of engineers to develop a unique dataset on a controlled soundstage, similar to a full-scale production, and began building the first AI models.
He said the model is “trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency while maintaining the rules of film under real-world production challenges such as dropped shots, background substitutions, and lighting inaccuracies,” while also “placing creative decisions in the hands of the artist.”
Affleck’s AI deal with Netflix comes at a time when much of Hollywood has been critical of the technology and also skeptical of major companies in the field.
SAG-AFTRA, the actors union of which Affleck is a member, is negotiating new contracts with major studios, proposing new AI clauses to protect human talent. A handful of Hollywood studios recently sent legal threats against Chinese tech company ByteDance over the company’s unauthorized use of copyrighted material in its new AI video platform, SeaDance 2.0.
