In a rare acquisition, Netflix has acquired InterPositive, a startup founded by Ben Affleck that develops AI-powered tools for filmmakers.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The entire InterPositive team of 16 engineers, researchers, and creatives will join Netflix through the acquisition, and Affleck will provide continued guidance as a senior advisor to Netflix.
While Netflix has historically been more of a builder than a buyer, the company said it sees Affleck’s InterPositive as offering a unique AI toolset that “puts filmmakers at the center of the process.” Netflix plans to provide access to InterPositive’s technology to creative partners and has no plans to sell it commercially in the marketplace.
Affleck’s LA-based company has been in stealth mode since it was founded in 2022, not producing generative AI videos like OpenAI’s Sora. “It’s not about prompting text or generating something out of nothing,” Affleck said of InterPositive’s approach in a video shared by Netflix with the acquisition announcement (see below). “When people think of AI, they almost always think of it as something that creates something out of nothing. ‘You put something into a computer and it makes a movie.’ That’s not what it’s about.”
Affleck explained that the InterPositive system builds an AI model based on existing production dailies and allows filmmakers to bring that model into the post-production process to provide features such as mix and color, relighting shots and adding visual effects.
News of Netflix’s acquisition of Affleck’s AI company comes a week after the streaming giant backed away from plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming operations. After Paramount Skydance raised its hostile bid for WBD by $1 per share and made a winning offer of $31 per share, Netflix chose not to make a counteroffer.
Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said Interpositive’s AI technology gives partners “more choice, more control, and vision protection.”
“Our relationship with our artists has always been based on trust. We fully support their creativity and ensure they have the power to decide how their films and shows are produced,” Bajaria said in a statement. “We believe that new tools should expand the creative freedom of writers, directors, actors, and crew, not limit or replace their work. Ben and his team at Interpositive are leading the way in the artist industry’s use of innovation in storytelling. Their work is about giving filmmakers more choice, more control, and more protection for their vision. We’re excited to build on that tradition together by putting creators and their artistic intentions at the center of everything we do.”
Elizabeth Stone, chief product and technology officer at Netflix, said that generally speaking, the generative AI video platforms available today are not working from a filmmaker’s perspective. She said the InterPositive tools are designed to help filmmakers produce higher quality content, not to make movies or TV shows faster or cheaper.
“Our approach to AI has always been focused on meaningfully serving the needs of our creative community and members,” Stone said. “The InterPositive team is joining Netflix because of our shared belief that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them. InterPositive’s superior technology will help filmmakers and showrunners create creative visions and help them realize the vision they want to bring to life. We look forward to welcoming the InterPositive team to Netflix and continuing to build toward a future of entertainment where technology plays a role in how stories are told, but where people and their ideas, skills, and judgment play an important role.” — remains the core of great storytelling. ”
In an account provided by Netflix, Affleck detailed the story behind InterPositive’s creation. “In 2022, I spent a lot of time observing the early rise of AI in production,” he said. “As filmmakers, we see how inadequate these models are. For artists to apply these tools to tell the stories we dedicate our lives to, they must be purpose-built to express and protect all the qualities that make great stories, whether it’s the nuances of filmmaking, the predictable and unpredictable challenges of the production environment, the distortion of a lens, or the way light changes shape across a scene.”
Affleck continued, “We also need to protect the judgment that makes storytelling human, something that only humans can possess over decades of experience and honing. I knew I had a responsibility to my colleagues and the industry to protect human creativity and the people behind it.”
According to Affleck, InterPositive began filming its own dataset “with all the familiarities of a full production” in a controlled soundstage. “We wanted to build a workflow that captured what was happening on set, using a vocabulary that matched the language that cinematographers and directors already spoke, and with the consistency and control they expected.”
Affleck said the startup’s first AI model was trained to understand “visual logic and editing consistency,” maintaining the rules of the film even under real-world production challenges such as missing shots, background substitutions, and lighting inaccuracies. “It also has built-in limits to protect creative intent, so this tool is designed to enable responsible exploration while putting creative decisions in the hands of artists. It’s also designed to ensure that the benefits of this technology translate directly into the stories artists are trying to tell.”
Affleck added, “I couldn’t be more excited to continue this work with the team at Netflix, and I look forward to providing the broader creative community with access to what we’re building and the future we’re working on together.”
Watch the Netflix video of Affleck discussing Interpositive and AI with Bajaria and Stone.
