A new Guardian report tracks the rise of AI-native film studios like Promise, using synthetic environments, effects, and performers to make movies that traditional financing would never greenlight. Costs are reportedly dropping hard. Filmmakers, actors and unions are pushing back just as hard.
The question stopped being “can AI make a movie.” It’s now: who gets to afford making one, and what happens to everyone whose job was the expensive part.
And now the first AI movie star just got her lead role…
AI-generated performer Tilly Norwood is set to headline Misaligned, a feature from studio Particle 6, working alongside human filmmakers. Forget the novelty — the real question is what “performance” even means when the performer isn’t a person, and who owns whatever she creates on screen.



