27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How was Black Mirror's Hotel Reverie made? Director Haolu Wang on AI, love of old films
In 'Hotel Reverie', an episode from the recent, seventh season of Netflix series Black Mirror, filmmaker Haolu Wang focuses on the hot topic of artificial intelligence (AI).
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The episode sees AI technology being used to speed up, simplify and, most importantly, reduce the costs of remaking a classic film as something of a money grab.
This 78-minute instalment of the science-fiction anthology series dropped just months after Hollywood writers, directors and actors went on strike to
protest at the expansion in the use of AI – and the lack of agreements on it – in the entertainment industry.
The irony of the timing is not lost on the Chinese-born director, who hopes that 'people will realise AI is terrible for creativity'.
Haolu Wang on the set of Hotel Reverie, which she says was crafted by hand to resemble the way they made films in the 1940s. Photo: Netflix
In a video call from her London home, Wang tells the Post: 'Although 'Hotel Reverie' seems to present a way that AI can be used more positively … humanity, creativity and love are ultimately what matter. AI cannot create love.'
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