Australian filmmaker and “The Crow” director uses AI to slash $100M movie budget by 90%

Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas believes the movie industry’s financial model is fundamentally broken, with streaming services reducing residuals and shrinking budgets, but sees AI as a path to artistic liberation rather than a threat. The director of “The Crow” and “I, Robot” argues that AI can help rebuild the industry by dramatically lowering production costs and allowing filmmakers to retain more ownership of their projects.

What you should know: Proyas is putting his philosophy into practice with his upcoming film “RUR,” which explores themes of robot emancipation from capitalist exploitation.

• The film, based on a 1920 Czech satirical play, stars Samantha Allsop, Lindsay Farris and Anthony LaPaglia and has been filming since October last year.
• Through his company Heretic Foundation, established in Sydney in 2020, Proyas can produce the film at a fraction of what would have been a traditional $100 million studio cost.
• The production leverages virtual production technology through a partnership with Dell, enabling generative AI asset creation in real time during filming.

How it works: AI technology is dramatically reducing both costs and production timelines for complex filmmaking processes.

• Environment design that traditionally takes six months can now be completed in eight weeks, according to Proyas.
• The director describes AI as “augmenting intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence, allowing teams to “streamline, to expedite, to make things more efficient.”
• Proyas maintains his role as director hasn’t changed: “My co-collaborators, being the AIs, have got to service my vision. And I know what that is.”

What they’re saying: Proyas acknowledges workforce changes while remaining optimistic about AI’s collaborative potential.

• “Workforces are going to be streamlined” but people could be retrained, he says, adding “I believe there will be work for everyone who embraces and moves forward with the technology as we’ve always done in the film industry.”
• On creative ownership concerns: “You don’t need AI to plagiarise” in the “analogue world” already.
• “You will always need a team of human beings. I think of the AIs as one of the part of the collaborative team, which will allow smaller teams to do things better, faster and cheaper.”

Why this matters: Proyas’s approach represents a contrarian view in an industry where many see AI as an existential threat to creative jobs and artistic integrity.

• His perspective comes as Australia’s Productivity Commission, a government advisory body, faces criticism from creative industries for considering whether AI companies should get free access to creative works for training models.
• The filmmaker’s hands-on experience with AI in production provides a real-world case study of how the technology might reshape filmmaking economics and creative processes.