Regisseur Steven Soderbergh heft gezegd dat hij kunstmatige intelligentie heft gebruikt voor zijn nieuwe documentaire ‘John Lennon: The Last Interview’. Dat deed hij in samenwerking met Meta.

Soderbergh is de regisseur van films als ‘Eric Brockovich’ en de ‘Ocean’s eleven’-serie.

Recent werkte hij aan een film over het laatste vraaggesprek dat Lennon gaf. Daarin sprak hij over zijn toen net met Yoko Ono opgenomen album ‘Double Fantasy’, maar er waren geen beelden van dat interview, alleen geluid.

Voor de door AI gegenereerde beelden gebruikte Soderbergh bijna alleen archiefmateriaal, maar voor ongeveer tien procent zou het gaan om beelden ‘portraying surreal moments that he claims are not possible through creative methods.’

Soderbergh zegt er in een interview met Deadline dit over:

‘So now we’ve got it kind of laid out in chapters and we begin to fill in the areas in which John and Yoko are speaking about a specific experience that they had, or a specific piece of music, or a specific person, and layer in archival material over that text — sometimes stills, sometimes motion, video. And we have a version of the movie in which the only holes that remain now are the sections where John and Yoko are talking in abstract philosophical terms.

This comprises about 10 per cent of the entire film, but it’s a real problem because we’ve got to come up with something — some imagery that enhances what they’re saying, but is metaphorical.

So we’re starting to experiment with AI, trying to see if we can build some images that’ll fit alongside this text. I’m trying to articulate ideas that will result in something interesting, and we’re running out of money.

At this point, producer Michael Sugar says, ‘Look, I’ve been doing all this work with brands making content. I think we should have a conversation with Meta because they’re building some video generative tools.’ And I said, ‘Fine, let’s talk to them.’ They were open and wanted to see the film, so we showed them the film and they said, ‘Well, this is good timing because we really would like and need a filmmaker to stress test some of these tools that we’re working on. And if you agree to be a test case for us, we will provide the tech and finish the movie.” So I said, “Yeah, let’s do that.’

Soderbergh zegt ookt dat hij AI niet gebruikt om een werkelijkheid te creëren buiten de mens om: ‘There are two ways of using it.

There’s a way of using AI in which your intention is to fool somebody or manipulate them, to create an image that you want them to think is real. And then there’s a use, which is what we’re doing in the documentary, where it’s obvious that it is AI and that it is being used essentially in the way that you would use VFX or CGI or any sort of non-photographic technology.’

Verder zegt hij de steun te hebben van de erfgenamen van Lennon. Hij vroeg namelijk zoon Sean om zijn mening en die zei volgens Soderbergh: ‘Oh, he would’ve wanted to engage.’ He loved all new technology. All The Beatles did. He would want to play with it just to see what it could do. He goes, ‘That was the way he was. ‘ How he would’ve felt about it ultimately, we’ll never know, but he said he would’ve wanted to play with it.’

https://deadline.com/2026/05/steven-soderbergh-talks-ai-john-lennon-doc-1236876040

‘John Lennon: The Last Interview’ zou in première gaan op het festival van Cannes, dat van 12 tot en met 23 mei plaatsvindt.

Eerder nieuws over John Lennon vind je in de categorie nieuws.