20-05-2025
Darren Aronofsky Partners with Google DeepMind on Generative AI Short Film Initiative
Darren Aronofsky has launched a new generative AI storytelling venture in which he will partner with Google DeepMind to produce short films with Gen-AI and some of Google's newly announced tools.
The venture is titled Primordial Soup, and its research team, along with three filmmakers, will produce short films integrating new tech and storytelling and has the mission statement of creating frameworks for AI's role in filmmaking and putting artists in the driver's seat of technological innovation.
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'Filmmaking has always been driven by technology. After the Lumiere Brothers and Edison's ground-breaking invention, filmmakers unleashed the hidden storytelling power of cameras. Later technological breakthroughs — sound, color, VFX — allowed us to tell stories in ways that couldn't be told before. Today is no different. Now is the moment to explore these new tools and shape them for the future of storytelling,' Aronofsky said in an official statement.
The news was announced alongside Google's I/O event, in which the tech giant also unveiled its latest generative video model called Veo 3, as well as an advanced new gen-AI editing tool called Flow. Google DeepMind will provide Primordial Soup's team early access to these tools.
The first film produced under the partnership is called 'Ancestra' and is directed by Eliza McNitt. Her film will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 13, and it will be followed by a panel featuring the filmmakers and moderated by Aronofsky. The film blends live-action filmmaking and performance with generative visuals and is described as a deeply personal narrative inspired by the day McNitt was born. McNitt trained the AI models on her own baby pictures and other photos taken by her late father in order to generate a newborn infant with a story that could be shaped by her own biography.
'With 'Ancestra,' I was able to visualize the unseen, transforming family archives, emotions, and science into a cinematic experience that feels both intimate and expansive,' said McNitt.
McNitt is known for a previous VR experience that was executive produced by Aronofsky that featured the voices of Millie Bobby Brown, Jessica Chastain, and Patti Smith as the voices of the cosmos. It was the first VR project to ever be acquired out of Sundance.
Two additional films, yet to be announced, will explore other new applications of Veo, Google DeepMind's video generation model.
Watch the first teaser for 'Ancestra' above, and learn more about this strategic partnership at the Google DeepMind blog.
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