Neill Blomkamp, the director behind District 9, Elysium, and Gran Turismo, has shared his latest project, which it's fair to say the majority of the filmmaker's fans aren't exactly enthusiastic about.
The 24-minute short, Nightborne, was created using AI, although Blomkamp does note that the film "features the faces and voices of real people." He also announced plans to tackle a fully AI feature-length film at some point.
"I've been experimenting with AI for a couple of years, and it's now at the point where I want to tackle a full feature in this format," Blomkamp said on X. "This is a 13-minute test start. It was made with real concept artists, and features the faces and voices of 32 real people. Barley Studios will be my new AI studio for creating my own films, the way Oats Studios was for traditional film and VFX."
Nightborne's story focuses on a helicopter pilot shot down and killed in action, and the revelation that his superiors are actually creating zombies in order to build an army of super soldiers.
It's an intriquing concept, but the announcement has been met with a significant amount of backlash.
While some feel that this is simply a case of a filmmaker embracing new technology (yes, AI has its defenders), others had no problem at all telling Blomkamp what they made of his short.
You get the general idea.
You can watch Nightborne for yourselves at the link below, and let us know what you think in the comments.