Edwards, Schrader Praise AI as 'Better Than CGI' at Amazon Event
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- Gareth Edwards told Amazon's AI on the Lot event that generative AI is 'a fucking genius at helping you' and 'going to be better than CGI,' comparing it to 'a second-unit director who is a billionaire on acid'
- Edwards said AI's real value is in pre-production — 'it's only good for iteration and discovering what the movie should be' — before handing off to traditional filmmaking once the vision is set
- Paul Schrader, the Taxi Driver writer and American Gigolo director, argued the 'real tip of the spear' is an AI protagonist audiences will pay to watch, not flashy monster effects
- Schrader said human extras paying $180 a day are now unnecessary because 'they look so plastic,' asserting 'we can and we will' replace them with AI
- The article counters the optimism with Steven Soderbergh's documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, whose AI inserts the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called 'blandly generic and very mediocre'
- Edwards closed by rejecting five-year AI predictions: 'anybody saying they know exactly what's going to happen over the next five years is just a liar'
Why it matters: Amazon is hosting Hollywood's loudest pro-AI pitches just as generative tools move from pre-production into on-screen talent replacement, and Schrader's $180-a-day extras math signals where studios' first cost-cut bets may land. Soderbergh's poorly reviewed AI documentary is the visible evidence that audience tolerance is the real bottleneck, not capability.
