Danny Boyle Confirms He Used AI in His New Movie INK
Danny Boyle has confirmed that generative AI was used for roughly 30 seconds of his new film, Ink, which tells the story of the rise of The Sun newspaper in the UK. Rather than dodge questions about the technology, Boyle has been pretty straightforward about exactly where and why it was used.
Speaking with Vanity Fair from the Telluride Film Festival, Boyle explained: “There’s about 30 seconds of it in our movie where we animate a couple of old photographs.” Oh, and there’s some mice,” he added. “It’s very good for animals, and we had some mice that run around The Sun newsroom.”
The admission answers a question some viewers had after Ink premiered at the Venice Film Festival. People on wondered whether AI had been used to animate archival images featuring the Kray brothers and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Based on Boyle’s comments, it appears they were right.
There have also been claims online that the film discloses its use of AI in the end credits, although that hasn't been officially confirmed by the production.
Whatever you think about generative AI in movies, I like that Boyle is being open about using it. With studios and filmmakers sometimes being vague about where AI fits into a production, it’s good to have some transparency.
Boyle also offered his broader view of AI and filmmaking, saying the technology itself isn't going anywhere and that the conversation will ultimately be shaped by younger generations.
“It doesn’t really matter what I think about AI. It matters what 20-year-olds think about it. Is the honest truth. My opinion of it is that it’s a very useful tool in many ways, provided you use it respectfully and provided you pay actors if you’re going to replace them with some kind of AI embodiment.”
His use of AI-generated mice also connects to something from much earlier in his career. Boyle said he got “in trouble” with PETA after using real chimpanzees while making 28 Days Later. Since then, he has tried to avoid using real animals in his productions when possible.
The film follows the rise of Britain's notorious tabloid The Sun during the 1970s under editor Larry Lamb, who was poached from the Daily Mirror in 1969 by an emerging media mogul named Rupert Murdoch.
The movie stars Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, and Claire Foy, and comes from Studiocanal and Netflix. After opening the Venice Film Festival, it headed to Telluride and has received largely positive reviews, currently sitting at 85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ink is scheduled to arrive in theaters in December before hitting Netflix in January.
AI in filmmaking remains one of the industry's biggest points of contention, and that's not changing anytime soon.