One AI startup that Amazon supports through its Alexa Fund is working on an extremely odd project that has excited and intrigued the film and tech industries. The company, Fable, the so-called Netflix of AI, has reported that it was going to be trying to recreate digitally the missing 43 minutes of the 1942 masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles.
The news is shocking to some due to the fact that Fable is most recognized as the developer of AI-powered software enabling people to create original animated video based on textual input. The controversial experiments have already been conducted on the platform, such as making unauthorized episodes of South Park. Now, Fable is testing the boundaries of its technology, releasing a new AI model capable of creating long and complex storylines, and it wants to demonstrate these technologies using one of the most well-known unfinished works in the history of Hollywood.
The Ambersons Project
Most people remember The Magnificent Ambersons as a lost masterpiece. Although Orson Welles’ first film, Citizen Kane, is regarded as one of the best films in the world, his second film was ripped off by the studio. RKO Pictures removed almost twelve minutes of material as originally shot by Welles and swapped the gloomy final to a happier one, and burnt the deleted film. Not only did this intervention undermine the film, but it also initiated a troubled relationship between Welles and Hollywood.
Cinephiles have long decried the fact that Welles never truly intended Ambersons to be the way it turned out. Fable is collaborating with director Brian Rose who has dedicated five years to the research and digital reconstruction of what has been lost. The project will fuse AI-based storytelling with conventional filmmaking over the next two years. Certain scenes are to be remade with new actors, whose acting will be computerized to look like the original actors.
The Controversy
Fable has failed to obtain the rights to The Magnificent Ambersons, despite the ambitious nature of the project. This also poses great legal and ethical issues, as the recreated film is not likely to ever be shown publicly without the rights owners’ approval.
What is even more dramatic is that Welles’ estate was not approached prior to the announcement. The attempt was criticized by David Reeder, who runs the estate for the daughter, Beatrice, of Welles, as an attempt to make publicity out of the creative genius of Welles. He said that any such reproduction would be purely a mechanical act and could never be a personal artistic statement by Welles.
Reeder did add that the estate has also been using AI technology, having licensed the voice of Welles to be used in some of their brand-related applications. He was also frustrated by the fact that Fable did not discuss or even communicate the idea of recreating the film with him.
Criticizing Welles or Cashing In on His Legacy?
Although the estate is less than enthusiastic, filmmaker Brian Rose has characterized the project as an attempt to bring to life Welles’ vision. He noted that one of the scenes destroyed was a four-minute long continuous tracking shot, a shot which many would have counted a technical and artistic victory. That sequence survived in the released movie, only 50 seconds. Rose thinks that recreation effort is the means of mourning and rebuilding what has been lost, although it may not always be perfect.
Nevertheless, critics believe that, however developed AI technology may be, it cannot produce the creative spark that characterized Welles as a filmmaker. Recreated performances, swapping faces, and patched-together digital effects can resemble the appearance of the Ambersons, but not turn it into the Welles film. The very best would be a hypothetical reconstruction, a homage, not a rediscovery.
The Bigger Picture
It is not the first occasion when other directors and studios attempted to recreate or finish unfinished Welles projects. But previous completed work was based on material shot by Welles himself. By contrast, Fable combines AI-generated content with reshoots, which is basically the process of creating something completely new.
The issue has become part of a wider discussion about AI in art. Will artificial intelligence ever be able to substitute human creativity? Will it ever produce only copies of the things that have been created in the past? The project has been viewed by its supporters as an experimental new frontier in film preservation and storytelling. Critics see it as a misplaced PR gimmick that dangerously erases one of the most tragic lost movies in the history of cinema.
What is particularly striking about the project is the fact that, with this lost footage, the original Ambersons of Welles is almost definitely lost forever. No technology could possibly replace what was destroyed over 80 years ago unless the missing reels somehow turn out to be miraculously found.
Conclusion
The proposed recreation of The Magnificent Ambersons by Fable demonstrates the potential of AI in the world of creativity and its constraints. On the one hand, it presents the idea of artificial intelligence being able to go extra miles and provoke daring experiments. On the other hand, it casts dark clouds over the issue of authorship, intellectual property, and appreciation of artistic legacies.
It is not clear whether the project will ever amount to anything. At least until now it remains a thought-provoking case study of the ways emerging technologies have crashed against history and cinema and the long-term heritage of Orson Welles.
