Matthew Libatique: AI for Marvel VFX, Not Actors — SkimNews
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- Matthew Libatique, speaking at Evolution Mallorca where he received the Cinematography Icon Award, said AI “could replace Marvel” because giant-budget studios will need it for visual effects to curb costs, but Marvel will never use AI actors.
- Darren Aronofsky and Libatique are testing AI before shooting their next film together; Libatique said the production will remain human, with Aronofsky on set moving everything around with his fingers as usual.
- Primordial Soup was launched last year by Aronofsky in collaboration with Google DeepMind, and Aronofsky has been given money to explore how AI affects his filmmaking.
- Matthew Libatique said he has used AI in post-production to correct glare instead of sending the work to people abroad earning $2 an hour, while acknowledging that automation took jobs from post-production workers.
- Goodbye Lamby used AI to imagine a world inside Dustin Yellin’s sculpture; Libatique said placing a physical light in a roof opening made prompting easier than trying to convince the machine.
- Matthew Libatique said he received AI videos prompted in his style on two occasions and called the practice offensive, arguing that human taste—not a distilled visual formula—makes films distinct.
- 300, filmed against green screens in a warehouse, was Libatique’s “early AI movie” example; he said nobody would make Sentimental Value with AI and linked some audiences’ limits to age, gender and social interaction.
Why it matters: For studios such as Marvel, Libatique frames AI as a way to curb the cost of visual effects, not as a substitute for human performers. For post-production workers, his endorsement of glare correction comes with an explicit acknowledgment that automation took work from industry workers and shifted it to overseas sweatshops paying some about $2 an hour.
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