Brad Pitt Backs AI as Tool to Rescue Mid-Budget Films
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Brad Pitt said AI could help more mid-budget films, specifically those with $40 to $90 million budgets, get made if used as a tool rather than a replacement for human creators.
- Pitt expressed more complicated feelings about AI replicating his performances, telling Esquire the final product "might not be my choices and what I found and discovered in the thing" since it's shaped by whoever is "behind it."
- Pitt revealed he has been body-scanned for the past 20 years and has always contracted to own and destroy the scans—now calling himself "paranoid Ozark boy" and saying "I should have kept them!"
- Pitt acknowledged hearing an AI-generated song recently that was "pretty damn good," but added it had a "repetitive nature" and wasn't the same as hearing "a woman's voice, a person's voice."
- Pitt's next film is "Heart of the Beast," about a special forces soldier who survives a plane crash with his dog.
- Pitt will reprise his Oscar-winning role as Cliff Booth in "The Adventures of Cliff Booth," directed by David Fincher from a Quentin Tarantino script; Tarantino bowed out after deciding not to make it his 10th and final film.
Why it matters: An A-list star publicly endorsing AI as a production tool—while naming a concrete $40-90 million budget window where it could matter—adds rare on-the-record legitimacy from a major Hollywood name. Pitt's regret over destroying 20 years of scans gives actors negotiating future contracts a real-world reference point on who controls their image rights.
Ask SkimNews
