While most in Hollywood are concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence (most recently in the form of AI actress Tilly Norwood) on the industry, Mad Max director George Miller likens it to the Renaissance movement’s influence on painting.
In an interview with the Guardian before heading the jury at Australia’s Omni AI Film Festival, Miller said the debate around AI “reflects an earlier period in art history”, particularly the Renaissance era, when the introduction of oil painting “gave artists the freedom to revise and improve their work over time”.
“This change has sparked controversy, with some arguing that true artists should be able to work on canvas without modification, while others embrace the new flexibility,” Miller told the Guardian. “In the mid-19th century, with the advent of photography, a similar argument was developed: Art must evolve. And while photography became its own form, painting continued. Both changed, but both persisted. Art changed.”
He also supports AI because it is “much more egalitarian.” “This makes screen storytelling available to anyone who needs it,” he says. “I know there are kids who aren’t even teenagers using AI yet. They don’t have to raise money. They’re making movies, or at least putting together footage.”
Miller said artificial intelligence is “the most dynamically evolving tool in video production.” “As a filmmaker, I’ve always been driven by tools. AI is here to stay and change things,” he asserted, adding, “The balance between human creativity and machine capabilities, that’s what the debate and anxiety is about.”
But Miller said that ultimately AI is not a threat because it cannot replace “human nature.” Reflecting on conversations he had with filmmakers about the 2015 British documentary “Listen to Me Marlon,” which featured a 3D software recreation of Marlon Brando, Miller said he didn’t believe AI could faithfully replace or revive an actor because of the idiosyncrasies of human performance.
He quoted the young director saying at the time about Listen to Me Marlon that in the future, “There may be characters that look like Marlon Brando, but there will be nothing close to Marlon Brando. There will be no engagement, and the performance will come from collaboration with other actors and directors and writers and so on. You won’t get the essence of Brando.”
Miller’s latest film, Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga, had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and grossed $174.3 million worldwide.
