The next “Spider-Verse” movie may feature a new animation style: AI.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) CEO Tony Vencira doesn't mince words when it comes to artificial intelligence. He loves tech – or at least, he loves economics.
“We're focusing a lot on AI. The biggest issue in making movies today is cost,” Venkakra said at Sony's investor event Thursday (Friday in Japan). Hoy will explore ways to more efficiently produce both films for theater and television.”
This is about the strongest support for AI we've heard from a film studio head.
Vinciquerra knows how controversial his comments can be with creators.
“We had an 8-month strike on AI last year,” Vinciquerra began in response to the first analyst question (from Nomura Securities) during his Q&A portion of the annual event. He also acknowledged that the ongoing IATSE talks and the Teamsters' upcoming talks “are both again on AI.”
The sum of these conversations between Hollywood operatives and its studios would reveal how far Vincira and others could go.
“The contracts that came out of last year's strikes and the contracts that came out of the IATSE and the Teamsters. [negotiations] will almost define what we can do with AI,” Vinciquerra said.
Vinciquerra fielded several more questions from analysts, though none directly about the possibility of Sony buying Paramount — with or (perhaps with) private equity firm Apollo. It wasn't exactly a wasted opportunity: Venkikara could not say much about these ongoing discussions anyway. However, he made it General M&A comments (when asked) that one can definitely read.
“We are looking for strategic investments… that complement our strategy,” he said. “We're not moving away from a strategy that has been very successful for us over the past several years.”
SPE has famously maintained an arms dealer approach to the streaming wars. Beyond (and beyond) theatrical release, it licenses the content to Netflix.
“We're not going to make investments that don't complement our current strategy, and our strategy is to have more IP, more product, more library to sell,” Vinkekra said. “We're not going to go into another business. We're not going to enter a general entertainment streaming service. We're not going to run another business that's outside of the strategy we've laid out — regardless of what you read in the press. ”
You know where “more IP, more product, more library for sale” is? Well, Paramount. But Paramount Global also has a “general entertainment streaming service,” Paramount+, which Vinciquerra isn't trying to “enter.”
Vencicara's comments sound like the latest (potential) death sentence for the original Paramount streaming service, but they don't mean he hates the streaming business entirely (though one might not be on Sony's Crackle service). didn't want to stay).
“Crunchyroll is going to be the main driver of our growth at SPE over the next few years,” Vinciquerra said during the Q&A.
Just imagine the potential of AI in anime…