‘The Shrouds’ David Cronenberg On AI’s Film Industry Impact: “The Whole Idea Of Productions And Actors Will Be Gone”

Anthony D'Alessandro
·2 min read
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When it comes to whether AI is friend or foe, particularly in regards to its place in the film industry, David Cronenberg is both intrigued and terrified.

“What do we do? I have no idea,” the Canadian horror sci-fi maestro said Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, the day after the world premiere of his new film The Shrouds.

Cronenberg’s techno forward-looking yet eerily dystopian The Shrouds follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. There’s a moment in the film that deals with AI. Guy Pearce‘s character Maury, has set-up Karsh’s computer. Maury claims to live inside it, along with blonde Hunny the AI bot that does Karsh’s admin.

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Diane Kruger and Sandrine Holt also star.

Cronenberg said today he is rather amazed at AI’s powers in filmmaking.

“As a filmmaker who welcomes the advent of computer generated imagery, which we called CGI, it’s made filmmaking much easier,” said Cronenberg. He spoke about how the coffee cup was left in the opening of Ridley Scott’s Alien and thanks to CGI, a snafu like that can be erased out.

“I think artificial intelligence can enhance that, so on that level I welcome that and I look forward to using it. It’s quite shocking what can be done even now with the beginning of artificial intelligence.”

RELATED: Diane Kruger On David Cronenberg’s Personal Grief That Informed ‘The Shrouds’: “He Was Reliving A Little Bit Of His Life Every Time I Came On Screen”

Cronenberg said that screenwriters will be known as “prompters” as merely providing the AI details and descriptions that can easily develop into a full-bodied movie. “That comes directly from what you wrote as a prompter,” he said.

“If the persons can write it in enough detail, the movie will appear.”

“The whole idea of productions and actors and so on will be gone, said Cronenberg. “That’s the promise and threat of artificial and intelligence.”

“Do we welcome that or fear that? Both, both,” said Cronenberg.

The director has said that The Shrouds is autobiographical; he wrote it following his wife’s death after a battle with cancer.

“I stopped filmmaking after that for a few years, and I felt the impulse to tell the story,” he said.

Cronenberg was quite the firecracker at Cannes 2022, when he was here with Crimes of the Future. The filmmaker memorably slammed the United States.

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