Google Is Getting Into the Movie Business to Produce Pro-Tech Propaganda
Big tech has a big public opinion problem. Years of political controversy and privacy invasions have left people feeling hostile toward the industry, no matter what side of the aisle they fall on. Maybe a little boost from Tinseltown would help? That seems to be what Google's thinking as it has struck up a multi-year partnership with Range Media Partners (producers of 'Longlegs' and 'A Complete Unknown') on a new film and TV production venture called 100 Zeros. The initiative is tasked with finding scripted and unscripted projects for Google to help fund or produce.
Business Insider reports that Google's ultimate aim is to encourage creatives to adopt its new technologies, like its Immersive View feature, which lets users see things in 3D in Maps; spatial tools that blend the real and virtual worlds; and AI.
More significantly, the company is also hoping to promote positive opinions of its products, especially among young people, by creating its own pieces of entertainment and popular culture.
To this end, 100 Zeros quietly contributed some marketing dollars to Neon's 'Cuckoo,' an indie horror film starring Hunter Schaefer, last year. 100 Zeros's logo was featured on-screen during the movie's opening credits, but Google sought no publicity for the spend.
In April, Google announced another project with Range: 'AI on Film,' a program to commission short films that explore the relationship between humanity and AI. The companies committed to spending the next 18 months developing, financing, and producing these shorts, with the ultimate goal of greenlighting two into feature-length adaptations.
At the time, Mira Lane, then the Sr. Director of Technology and Society at Google, explained the venture to Variety, saying, '…as AI moves out of the realm of science fiction and into our everyday lives, narrative films present an opportunity to explore and showcase the ways we want to coexist with this technology.' According to LinkedIn, Lane has since been promoted to VP of technology and society at Google, and her work is focused on the way the company can 'combat a deluge of dystopian narratives' brought on by the development of intelligence.
Talent firm and production company Range Media was founded in 2022 by Peter Micelli and Jack Whigham, two veterans of powerhouse agency CAA. Range's roster of clients includes director Michael Bay, actor Bradley Cooper, and athlete and content creator Ilona Maher.
Notably, CAA filed suit against Range Media in 2024, accusing the company of stealing confidential information from CAA via its assistants and other employees it was in the process of poaching. (This is a movie I would watch!) It also alleges that Range Media skirts California law and Writers Guild of America requirements by acting as a talent agency, but calling itself a management company. In doing so, CAA claims that the company can profit from transactions not available to 'law-abiding talent agencies.' In January, Range Media won a pause in litigation.
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