Latest news with #Marey
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Streaming Wars Heat Up: How Moonvalley's $123M AI Bet Could Shape Hollywood's Future
Toronto startup Moonvalley is having no trouble raising additional capital since securing a $70 million seed round in November. The developer of AI tools for video creation has added another $53 million to its checkbook, according to last week's Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Fourteen unnamed investors have now come on board, with potentially good reasons for their anonymity. The company has opened operations in Los Angeles, tracking an eyebrow-raising game plan in this overcrowded tech venue. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Moonvalley is building the Marey AI learning model in collaboration with animator Asteria, operating out of the Mack Sennett soundstage. According to a press release, Marey will bring "unparalleled power and control to film and media production, while distinguishing itself by relying exclusively on ethically sourced data owned and licensed by the company." Given proximity to Hollywood studios, unnamed investors may include major industry players making plans for the future. Content creators have been taking aggressive action against video AI startups that train models on public data, arguing fair-use violations of their copyrighted materials. Moonvalley hopes to jump legal hurdles by obtaining licensing and purchasing agreements prior to use. Videos will then be packaged into datasets and fed into Marey while clients retain authority to delete their data or request removal. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Moonvalley still has to tread lightly. Hollywood's Animation Guild represents top-tier creators, animators and cartoonists. The union commissioned a study in 2024 that predicts disruption to more than 100,000 U.S.-based film, television and animation jobs within two years. Following the study's release, the union signed a three-year contract that expires at the end of 2027, setting the stage for a showdown that rivals last year's Hollywood strike. Of course, AI has already infiltrated the entertainment industry, led by widespread use of computer graphics in action films in the 1990s. However, the tech may also revive careers of dead actors. Imagine "Gone Again With the Wind", featuring a robust Clark Gable galloping past a perfectly rendered Charleston, South Carolina in ruins. It's the kind of pipe dream that thrills Hollywood producers while nervous actors call their Marey interface is still under construction and not available for public scrutiny. The company said the software will feature storyboarding and granular clip adjustment tools, generating videos from text prompts, sketches, photos, video clips and other media. Initial HD rendering is expected to produce clips up to 30 seconds long, which doesn't sound impressive. However, string them together and a fully-fledged cinema experience might emerge. Given industry crosswinds, Moonvalley faces an uncertain path from build out to full-scale production. From a profit perspective, future investors should remain cautious because the ethical approach will be duplicated by competitors if it gains traction in Hollywood, undermining the start-up's competitive edge. That's one reason the growing list of unnamed investors is critical to this venture's long-term success, especially if they're bankrolled by Hollywood or Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). Read Next:Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Image: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? NETFLIX (NFLX): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Streaming Wars Heat Up: How Moonvalley's $123M AI Bet Could Shape Hollywood's Future originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI video startup Moonvalley lands $53M, according to filing
Roughly a month after Moonvalley, a Los Angeles-based startup developing AI tools for video creation, said it secured $43 million in new funding, the company has raised more, according to a filing with the SEC. The filing, submitted Thursday, reveals that Moonvalley actually landed (so far) around $53 million total from a group of 14 unnamed investors. The filing indicates that this is an additional $10 million in cash, rather than a whole new round. It brings the company's total raised to about $124 million, estimates Pitchbook, following on the heels of Moonvalley's $70 million seed round last November. Moonvalley declined to comment. The wide availability of tools to build video generators has led to such an explosion of providers that the space is becoming saturated. Startups such as Runway, Lightricks, Genmo, Pika, Higgsfield, Kling, and Luma, as well as tech giants like OpenAI, Alibaba, and Google, are releasing models at a fast clip. In many cases, little distinguishes one model from another. Moonvalley's Marey model, built in collaboration with a new AI animation studio called Asteria, offers customization options like fine-grained camera and motion controls, and can generate 'HD' clips up to 30 seconds long. Moonvalley claims it's also lower risk than some other video generation models from a legal perspective. But where Moonvalley is attempting to differentiate itself — hence the high VC interest — is on the data it's using to train its models, as well as the safeguards in its video creation tools. Many generative video startups train models on public data, some of which is invariably copyrighted. These companies argue that fair-use doctrine shields the practice, but that hasn't stopped rights holders from lodging complaints and filing cease and desists. Moonvalley says it's working with partners to handle licensing arrangements and package videos into datasets that the company then purchases. The approach is similar to Bria's and Adobe's, the latter of which procures content for training from creators through its proprietary Adobe Stock platform. Moonvalley is also crafting an interface for its model. The company's software, which it hasn't previewed publicly yet, has storyboarding and "granular" clip adjustment tools, Moonvalley's co-founders revealed in recent interviews. Marey can generate videos not only from text prompts but sketches, photos, and other video clips, claims Moonvalley. Naeem Talukdar, who previously led product growth at Zapier, founded Moonvalley with former DeepMind scientists Mateusz Malinowski and Mik Binkowski. John Thomas joined as Moonvalley's COO — he and Talukdar had founded another startup, Draft, several years ago. Moonvalley also counts Asteria head Bryn Mooser as a co-founder. Many artists and creators are understandably wary of video generators, as they threaten to upend the film and television industry. A 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimates that more than 100,000 U.S.-based film, television, and animation jobs will be disrupted by AI by 2026. Moonvalley intends to allow creators to request their content be removed from its models, let customers delete their data at any time, and offer an indemnity policy to protect its users from copyright challenges. Unlike some 'unfiltered' video models that readily insert a person's likeness into clips, Moonvalley is also committing to building guardrails around its tools. Like OpenAI's Sora, Moonvalley's models will block certain content, like NSFW phrases, and won't allow users to prompt them to generate videos of specific people or celebrities. "We founded Moonvalley to make generative video technology that works for filmmakers and creative professionals," Moonvalley wrote in a blog post in March. "That means addressing fear and distrust, as well as solving technical problems that keep generative AI from being a realistic tool for professional production." This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cinephile Natasha Lyonne Defends AI Film ‘Uncanny Valley': 'Nothing I Love More Than Movies'
Natasha Lyonne had a long press line clamoring for her attention Thursday night at the second season premiere of Peacock's Poker Face in Hollywood. The veteran actress, whose multi-hyphenate duties on the critically acclaimed comedy series include writing, directing, starring and executive producing, didn't have time to stop for every outlet before she was needed on the American Legion Post 43 stage to introduce the screening alongside her partner-in-crime Rian Johnson. So she did something rare (and appreciated among the journalists left waiting outside) by heading to the stage to deliver those comments only to return to the red carpet and give every reporter some of her undivided attention. After detailing the 'magic' of the new season thanks to a killer line-up of high-profile guest stars, The Hollywood Reporter asked Lyonne about that other new project of hers on the horizon — an artificial intelligence-infused film Uncanny Valley. More from The Hollywood Reporter Natasha Lyonne Set to Make Feature Directorial Debut With AI Film - With Help From Jaron Lanier (Exclusive) 'Poker Face' Season 2 Trailer Heads Back on the Road With Natasha Lyonne Kumail Nanjiani on Playing a Florida Cop Named Gator Joe in 'Poker Face' Season 2: "Did You Send This One to Me by Mistake?" News of the project broke two days before the Poker Face premiere and caused a stir. As reported by THR, Lyonne is set to make her feature directorial debut on the film from a script she wrote with Brit Marling and both are on board to star. Set in the world of immersive video games and said to blend live-action and game elements, Uncanny Valley centers on a teenage girl named Mila who becomes unmoored by a hugely popular AR video game in a parallel present. Partners on the project — designed to offer a 'radical new cinematic experience,' per an Asteria representative — include technology innovator Jaron Lanier, the AI-based studio Asteria (founded by Lyonne with partner Bryn Mooser) and Moonvalley. It was obvious that the buzz had reached Lyonne, who was quick to defend the project during her time with THR. 'Of course the movie's going to be shot like a real movie. Now I'm really threatening to just shoot it on 35 [mm] or something to prove the point because [we are using] real-life human cinematographers and production designers and all that, of course,' explained Lyonne. 'I'm a Mr. Moviefone. There's nothing I love more than movies. Cinema is my very celluloid blood that runs through these veins. I love nothing more than filmmaking, the filmmaking community, the collaboration of it, the tactile fine art of it. I love every aspect of it — it's so incredible. I understand my own church, in a way, even when the rest of the world doesn't make sense. In no way would I ever want to do anything other than really create some guardrails or a new language.' The guardrails she referenced relate to how Moonvalley relies on an AI model called 'Marey' that is built on data that has been copyright cleared, unlike other viral industry leaders. 'I have this new studio that I founded, Asteria, with Bryn Mooser, and we found these amazing engineers at Moonvalley, and they agreed off this idea of why is every model dirty, like Runway and OpenAI? And why are they building it off of stolen data? Why do cell phones just have stolen data? It's a problem,' Lyonne said. 'What's so incredible about Marey is that it's the first underlying foundational model that you build on top of that is actually on copyrighted license, and you can go in with your concept artist and your storyboard artist and start building out a world.' Lyonne then praised her collaborators like Marling and Lanier, the latter of whom she called 'a pretty heavy hitter in this space' and a 'philosophical, ethical guy.' She added: 'We're getting to really find these sort of rules of play and start to understand that there might be a way to actually have some artist protection and carve out within all this that keeps us doing the thing that we love.' Speaking of that affection, Lyonne then recalled how close she was with the iconic filmmaker Nora Ephron. 'She was a real mentor of mine — I played a lot of poker — and she would say, 'Whatever you do, don't be a female filmmaker. You're only allowed one mistake and they never let you work again.' Of course she made so many hits that wasn't exactly true, but it was an interesting lesson about the opportunities that are given or not. I really see this as a way to get a chance to make those sort of Avengers-style sequences or something that are essentially green screen and CGI. That's mostly what [AI] is going to be used for, and that's what the word 'hybrid' means here.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI was enemy No. 1 during Hollywood strikes. Now it's in Oscar-winning films
Inside a soundstage once used by silent film stars Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, Hollywood executives, actors and filmmakers sipped cocktails as they marvelled at what some say is the biggest breakthrough since the talkies: AI-generated video. But whether AI will be the future, or the end, of cinema is still up for debate. It was only two years ago that actors and writers shut down Hollywood with strikes demanding protections from AI. Now the technology is controversially creeping into TV, movies and video games. Two films honoured at the Oscars even used the technology. As a DJ played '90s hip hop, computer developers rubbed shoulders actors and executives, in a sign of the changing power players in the industry. AI in Hollywood is "inevitable", says Bryn Mooser, the party's host and the co-founder of Moonvalley, which created the AI generator tool "Marey" by paying for footage from filmmakers with their consent. Mr Mooser says that while AI may still be a dirty word, their product is "clean" because it pays for its content. AI may be a dirty word in Hollywood, but Mr Mooser says their version of the technology is "clean." "Artists should be at the table," he says, adding that it's better to build the tool for filmmakers rather than get "rolled over by big tech companies". Artificial Intelligence has long been depicted as a villain in Hollywood. In "The Terminator," AI used by the US military decides it must destroy everyone on Earth. But it's AI's creators, and not the technology itself, that has received the brunt of real-life criticism. Companies use publicly available data to build their AI models - which includes copyrighted material shared online - and creators say they're being ripped off. OpenAI, Google and other tech companies are facing multiple lawsuits from writers, actors and news organizations, alleging their work was stolen to train AI without their consent. Studios like Paramount, Disney and Universal who own the copyright on movies and TV shows have been urged by writers to do the same, though none have taken legal action. "We've all fought very hard for copyright laws, and nobody wants to see their work stolen to have somebody else profit from it," Mr Mooser says. Hollywood has begun toying with the new technology. The Oscar-nominated films Emilia Perez and The Brutalist used AI to alter voices. Adrian Brody won the Academy Award for best actor, even with the help of AI to fine tune his accent when he spoke Hungarian in his starring role in The Brutalist. AI has even been used to de-age actors like Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford. The technology is seemingly everywhere. OpenAI hosted an AI film festival in Los Angeles earlier this month. Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo told the Wall Street Journal they plan to invest $400 million to craft AI tools for filmmakers. But the impacts on how it will alter the future of the entertainment industry remain unclear. Generative AI, for instance, allows computers to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem human – albeit much faster. And many worry about the technology replacing their jobs as AI is used to generate scripts, animation, locations, voices and human actors. If you ask OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT, which Hollywood jobs are most easily replaced by AI, background actors are top of the list as "most vulnerable" with "A-List actors & directors" considered safest because "star power and brand recognition keep top talent irreplaceable". At the Moonvalley party, everyone was talking about new AI technology though few wanted to speak with a reporter on record about it. But dozens of powerful people made the trek east to the hip Silver Lake neighbourhood from West Los Angeles even though it was raining. In LA, that's remarkable. "We're here to learn," said one executive who spent an hour in traffic getting to the party. "We're not signing anything or buying anything, but we're interested." Mooser and his co-founder Naeem Talukdar speak passionately about how AI will transform Hollywood and allow filmmakers to create blockbuster style epics on much lower budgets. It could lead to many bad films - but it could also help discover the next Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese, even if they don't have the backing of a big studio. "This technology is utterly meaningless without the artist at the centre of it; the technology needs to ultimately be subservient to the artist," says Mr Talukdar. Hollywood's foray into using AI comes as the Trump administration prepares a new AI plan for the United States. Tech companies say they can't compete with China under existing US copyright laws and that they need unfettered access to art - from Mickey Mouse to Moana to The Matrix - to train their AI models as a matter of national security. Google and OpenAI want the US government to designate copyrighted art, movies and TV shows as "fair use" for them to train AI, arguing that without the exceptions, they will lose the race for dominance to China. Hollywood filmmakers say tech companies are attempting to undermine the entertainment industry, which they point out supports more than 2.3 million US jobs. "We firmly believe that America's global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries," a group of more than 400 Hollywood A-listers - led by actress/writer Natasha Lyonne who helped develop Moonvalley - wrote in an open letter to the Trump administration, which has been soliciting public comment for its AI Action Plan. The letter's signatories included A-List stars like Ben Stiller, Paul McCartney, Cate Blanchett and Lilly Wachowski, who co-created "The Matrix," which depicts a dystopian simulated reality where humans are enslaved by intelligent machines. Many in Hollywood remain terrified of what AI means for their futures. Outside a Disney Character Voices office earlier this month, dozens of actors picketed against video game companies for refusing to come to an agreement on using AI in video games. "Using actual actors is the key to a lot of the drama and enjoyment that people get from video games," actor DW McCann said. "People have lived experiences that AI just can't understand." The actors want a contract that guarantees their voices and likeness will not be used without their consent to train AI models that replace them in the future. Mr Mooser says AI will allow filmmakers to create amazing art – if it's done right. With humans calling the shots, he says, AI could help them create sets and worlds they couldn't easily access or invent – and to do so much faster than what they could traditionally do with computer graphics and visual effects. "We're trying to say look, technology is going to be in everything. Let's make sure that we try to fight as hard as we can to make sure that it's done in the right way, and that artists aren't run over by big companies." Hollywood writers fear losing work to AI Actors go on strike over video games AI threat 'A tech firm stole our voices - then cloned and sold them' Susan Sarandon on the dangers of AI in film industry Hollywood writers in deal to end US studio strike
BBC News
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
AI helped cause Hollywood strikes. Now it's in Oscar-winning films
Inside a soundstage once used by silent film stars Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, Hollywood executives, actors and filmmakers sipped cocktails as they marvelled at what some say is the biggest breakthrough since the talkies: AI-generated whether AI will be the future, or the end, of cinema is still up for was only two years ago that actors and writers shut down Hollywood with strikes demanding protections from AI. Now the technology is controversially creeping into TV, movies and video games. Two films honoured at the Oscars even used the technology. As a DJ played '90s hip hop, computer developers rubbed shoulders actors and executives, in a sign of the changing power players in the in Hollywood is "inevitable", says Bryn Mooser, the party's host and the co-founder of Moonvalley, which created the AI generator tool "Marey" by paying for footage from filmmakers with their consent. Mr Mooser says that while AI may still be a dirty word, their product is "clean" because it pays for its content. AI may be a dirty word in Hollywood, but Mr Mooser says their version of the technology is "clean.""Artists should be at the table," he says, adding that it's better to build the tool for filmmakers rather than get "rolled over by big tech companies".Artificial Intelligence has long been depicted as a villain in Hollywood. In "The Terminator," AI used by the US military decides it must destroy everyone on it's AI's creators, and not the technology itself, that has received the brunt of real-life criticism. Companies use publicly available data to build their AI models - which includes copyrighted material shared online - and creators say they're being ripped Google and other tech companies are facing multiple lawsuits from writers, actors and news organizations, alleging their work was stolen to train AI without their consent. Studios like Paramount, Disney and Universal who own the copyright on movies and TV shows have been urged by writers to do the same, though none have taken legal action."We've all fought very hard for copyright laws, and nobody wants to see their work stolen to have somebody else profit from it," Mr Mooser says. Hollywood has begun toying with the new technology. The Oscar-nominated films Emilia Perez and The Brutalist used AI to alter voices. Adrian Brody won the Academy Award for best actor, even with the help of AI to fine tune his accent when he spoke Hungarian in his starring role in The Brutalist. AI has even been used to de-age actors like Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford. The technology is seemingly everywhere. OpenAI hosted an AI film festival in Los Angeles earlier this month. Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo told the Wall Street Journal they plan to invest $400 million to craft AI tools for the impacts on how it will alter the future of the entertainment industry remain unclear. Generative AI, for instance, allows computers to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem human – albeit much faster. And many worry about the technology replacing their jobs as AI is used to generate scripts, animation, locations, voices and human you ask OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT, which Hollywood jobs are most easily replaced by AI, background actors are top of the list as "most vulnerable" with "A-List actors & directors" considered safest because "star power and brand recognition keep top talent irreplaceable".At the Moonvalley party, everyone was talking about new AI technology though few wanted to speak with a reporter on record about it. But dozens of powerful people made the trek east to the hip Silver Lake neighbourhood from West Los Angeles even though it was raining. In LA, that's remarkable."We're here to learn," said one executive who spent an hour in traffic getting to the party. "We're not signing anything or buying anything, but we're interested."Mooser and his co-founder Naeem Talukdar speak passionately about how AI will transform Hollywood and allow filmmakers to create blockbuster style epics on much lower budgets. It could lead to many bad films - but it could also help discover the next Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese, even if they don't have the backing of a big studio."This technology is utterly meaningless without the artist at the centre of it; the technology needs to ultimately be subservient to the artist," says Mr Talukdar. Hollywood's foray into using AI comes as the Trump administration prepares a new AI plan for the United States. Tech companies say they can't compete with China under existing US copyright laws and that they need unfettered access to art - from Mickey Mouse to Moana to The Matrix - to train their AI models as a matter of national and OpenAI want the US government to designate copyrighted art, movies and TV shows as "fair use" for them to train AI, arguing that without the exceptions, they will lose the race for dominance to filmmakers say tech companies are attempting to undermine the entertainment industry, which they point out supports more than 2.3 million US jobs."We firmly believe that America's global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries," a group of more than 400 Hollywood A-listers - led by actress/writer Natasha Lyonne who helped develop Moonvalley - wrote in an open letter to the Trump administration, which has been soliciting public comment for its AI Action letter's signatories included A-List stars like Ben Stiller, Paul McCartney, Cate Blanchett and Lilly Wachowski, who co-created "The Matrix," which depicts a dystopian simulated reality where humans are enslaved by intelligent in Hollywood remain terrified of what AI means for their a Disney Character Voices office earlier this month, dozens of actors picketed against video game companies for refusing to come to an agreement on using AI in video games."Using actual actors is the key to a lot of the drama and enjoyment that people get from video games," actor DW McCann said. "People have lived experiences that AI just can't understand."The actors want a contract that guarantees their voices and likeness will not be used without their consent to train AI models that replace them in the future. Mr Mooser says AI will allow filmmakers to create amazing art – if it's done right. With humans calling the shots, he says, AI could help them create sets and worlds they couldn't easily access or invent – and to do so much faster than what they could traditionally do with computer graphics and visual effects."We're trying to say look, technology is going to be in everything. Let's make sure that we try to fight as hard as we can to make sure that it's done in the right way, and that artists aren't run over by big companies."
