At Cannes this year, both Fatih Akin and Hideo Kojima expressed cautious optimism about AI’s role in storytelling. After expressing mutual admiration and talking about their collaborations they expressed their views on AI. It’s not something to fear, but a tool—one that must be understood, integrated, and ultimately shaped to serve narrative rather than replace it. Akin notably remarked: “It is much like Milton’s Paradise Lost … it’s got so many layers.”
It’s a comparison that resonates. Milton’s Satan—rendered with tragic ambition, grandeur, and contradiction—is one of literature’s most complex and morally ambiguous characters. In invoking him, Akin wasn’t sounding an alarm, but pointing to a deeper truth: ethical ambiguity and creative power often come intertwined. That’s the terrain filmmakers must now navigate with AI.
Meanwhile, David Cronenberg, no stranger to provocation, defended AI use during the London Soundtrack Festival in remarks reported by The Hollywood Reporter. He dismissed the controversy surrounding The Brutalist—where AI was reportedly used to enhance Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent—saying: “We mess with actors’ voices all the time.” He added, “I think it was a campaign against The Brutalist by some other Oscar nominees.”
Director Antoine Fuqua struck a similar tone, also speaking to Movieguide. Reflecting on past technological shifts, he said: “We’re creatures of habit. I remember when I started in videos and commercials, I shot on film. Digital was a thing we all kicked and screamed about. Turns out, it’s fantastic. It’s another paintbrush we can use to do our work. AI’s the same thing. AI doesn’t replace human feelings and human emotions.”
The pattern is clear: genre filmmakers, long at ease with technological disruption, are not merely adapting to AI—they are actively shaping the ethics around it. Not in policy white papers, but in daily creative decisions. Not with blind optimism, but with calibrated risk.
For them, the question is no longer should we use AI—but how do we use it responsibly, and who does it serve?