Lionsgate Will Use AI to Let Filmmakers ‘Augment’ Their Work, Studio Expects to Save ‘Millions’ via Pact With Startup Runway

Lionsgate is aiming to save a boatload of cash using generative AI technology as an assistive creative tool for filmmakers.

Lionsgate, the film and TV studio behind film franchises including “John Wick” and “The Hunger Games,” announced a deal with applied AI research company Runway, whose investors include Google and AI hardware vendor Nvidia. Touted as Runway’s first deal with a Hollywood studio, the pact centers around Runway’s creation and training of a new AI model, customized to Lionsgate’s proprietary portfolio of film and television content. Lionsgate owns a film and television library with more than 20,000 titles.

According to Lionsgate, Runway’s model “generates cinematic video” that filmmakers, directors and other creative talent can use to “augment their work.” That AI-generated video can be “further iterated using Runway’s suite of controllable tools,” Lionsgate said.

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According to Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns, several filmmakers the studio works with “are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process.” In a statement, he said, “We view AI as a great tool for augmenting, enhancing and supplementing our current operations.”

Lionsgate expects to save “millions and millions of dollars” using Runway’s AI models, Burns told the Wall Street Journal. “We do a lot of action movies, so we blow a lot of things up and that is one of the things Runway does,” he said.

Runway, based in New York City, has raised $237 million in funding to date from investors including Google, Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures. The company says its AI research is “shaping the next era of art, entertainment and human creativity.” More info on Runway is available at this link.

“We’re committed to giving artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life,” Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said in a statement. “The history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression. The best stories are yet to be told.” He added, “Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work — we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”