In an age where AI can help make movies about anything, Utopai Studios has landed on farts.
An AI production company will produce an animated feature film based on the 2023 children’s book “The Most Serious Fart,” written by “Not Another Teen Movie” screenwriter Mike Bender and illustrated by Chuck Dillon, and inspired by Bender’s Lyme disease diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book follows Siegfried, a “very serious” fart who is determined to change the global perception of flatulence while finding a sense of belonging in the process.
Bender will write and direct the film, and “Flight Risk” producer Russell Hollander will produce. While Utopai’s slate of projects primarily consists of AI-generated work, “The Most Serious Fart,” which the studio is preparing for theatrical release, uses AI only as a tool for a team of human animators and illustrators that the studio will reveal at a later date.
Bender said he was drawn to Utopie because a series of Hollywood animation studios “couldn’t take a risk on a fresh, outlandish story,” and reached out to the studio, urging him to meet with CEO and co-founder Cecilia Shen. Bender said in a statement that Utopai’s investment in him as director and his desire to retain Dillon throughout the production process attracted him, allowing him to oversee a “deeply personal” project while maintaining “the integrity of the book’s look and feel.”
“The Utopia approach has allowed filmmakers like me to tell more original stories while there are fewer major studios, fewer films being made, and less risk,” Bender said. “Thankfully, as the box office numbers have proven, audiences are hungry for original films from innovative companies like Utopi. My hope is that we’ll ultimately create work that brings more joy to the world, and maybe even converts some serious farts.”
“We were drawn to ‘The Most Serious Fart’ because at the heart of the comedy is a universal story that we want to be understood,” Shen said in a statement. “Mike believed in this project long before he found a studio that fully supported his vision. We believe ‘Siegfried’ can become a major global franchise and we look forward to bringing this film to audiences in theaters around the world.”
“The Most Serious Fart” is the latest in Utopai’s stable of literary works, an area in which many AI studios are investing in trying to create proofs of concept for their models. Last month, the studio announced a partnership with Chinese production company Huace to create a fully AI-generated adaptation of Journey to the West: 500 Lost Years, the origin story of the 1592 Chinese mythological book. The series will be produced using Utopai’s AI storytelling platform PAI.
The studio’s supporters include NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and James Harden, who invested in the company through his production company Creative7 and joined Utopi as a strategic partner.
