Herzog, Bloom on 'Bucking Fastard' Threesome, AI Warnings — SkimNews
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- Werner Herzog and Orlando Bloom defended a threesome scene between Bloom's character and Rooney and Kate Mara's Holbrooke sisters in 'Bucking Fastard' at the San Sebastián Film Festival, with Bloom calling the moment "sincere" and Herzog saying he told Bloom: "How you deal with it, I cannot give instructions."
- Herzog, who is receiving this year's Donostia Award at San Sebastián, said he is three days from finishing his next project — likely "The Twilight World," an animated adaptation of his book about a Japanese officer who held a Filipino island for 29 years after WWII.
- Herzog warned against AI encroachment, urging young people to "dig a hole in the ground" and "build a little house on a tree" rather than let algorithms "dictate" their attention, and called Piotr Winiewicz's AI-generated film "About a Hero" — which cloned his voice and script — "phenomenally, abysmally stupid."
- Herzog cut off a journalist who described the film's long gestation as an "obsession," saying "If you have an obsessive director, actors will run away, producers will run away," and likened incoming stories to burglars he tackles by threat level.
- Herzog praised Bloom for stepping away from his "heartthrob for the teenies" image, asked the actor to grow a beard for the role, and predicted "time is on his side" with "beautiful stuff coming from him."
- Bloom called the job a "bucket list item," praised the film for "refusing to judge its characters and offer any kind of easy answers," and noted the shoot took place in Dublin with Rooney and Kate Mara.
Why it matters: Herzog is collecting a career-capping Donostia Award while still days from completing another project — and his AI comments land with extra force because Polish director Piotr Winiewicz just released "About a Hero," which fed Herzog's filmography into an AI to generate a script and clone his voice. The director publicly called that film "phenomenally, abysmally stupid," turning a routine press conference into a direct shot across the bow of AI filmmaking.
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