Something quietly tipped over this week, and today's newsletter is all about it. For a couple of years now, the AI-in-film conversation has mostly been an argument. Is it real? Is it cheating? Is it going to stick? This week the argument got a tiebreaker, and it came from about the most credible voice there is. George Lucas said AI is the future of the medium. His actual words: "Artificial intelligence means it's much easier for us to make movies," and "There's nothing you can do about it. That's progress; it's the future." That's the person who built the modern blockbuster telling you the door is open. And it's not just talk from the sidelines. The same week, the biggest streamer on earth put a number on it. In its quarterly letter to shareholders, Netflix said creative partners used generative AI across roughly 300 titles this year, mostly in post-production. Not a demo. Not a pilot program. Three hundred titles, on the record, to Wall Street. Put those two together and the shape of the week is hard to miss. The most famous names and the biggest money landed on the same side, out loud, at the same time. In today's full newsletter, I walk through what that actually means for working creators, plus the honest other half: a director who shipped a 135-minute AI feature almost by himself, Christopher Nolan calling the whole thing a trap from the other side of the same week, and a couple of new tools you can actually put to work. It's a five-minute read, and it's built to help you decide what to use and what to keep your hands on. Read the whole thing here: https://aiography.beehiiv.com/p/george-lucas-says-ai-is-the-future-of-movies Here's the thing I keep landing on. When a tool goes from "maybe" to "here to stay," the interesting question stops being whether you use it. It becomes what you refuse to hand over. The tools are settling. Your judgment is the part that still can't be automated, and this week made that clearer, not less.

I just spent two days at Amazon/MGM Studios in Culver City at AI on the Lot, the biggest AI filmmaking conference in the world, and I wrote up everything for this week's newsletter. It's a long one, on purpose. Paul Schrader got up and explained how he's writing with ChatGPT now. (Spielberg, in the same week, said there's no substitute for the soul about AI). Studios that wouldn't say "AI" out loud two years ago were on the main stage with their names on the work. And the films aren't hypothetical anymore; they're shipping, and a few are selling. I covered every session I could get to and owned up to the ones I couldn't, since I still can't be in two places at once. Read the full thing here. If you read it, I'd love your take below. What surprised you? What are you going to try?

You might want to check in with Skool. I just got an email with your latest post, but it's coming from the wrong group and when I click on the links, it takes me to that other group. See screenshot of the email.

I’d love to hear from everyone here. As this group continues to grow, I want to make sure we’re building something that is actually useful, practical, and worth your time. So here’s the question: What would you most like to get out of this community? I want your top 3. But Skool only lets you vote once. So please add a comment with your 2nd & 3rd choices. If something's missing, tell me. This community is yours as much as it's mine. I'd rather build what you'll actually use than guess. 😉 Thanks, Larry

I've been tracking something that dropped yesterday and I want to get your take on it. Canal+ — the French company behind Studiocanal, Paddington, Back to Black — just announced formal multi-year partnerships with both Google AND OpenAI in the same breath as their annual earnings call. Not a pilot. Not an experiment. Infrastructure. The specific use case they highlighted: Google's Veo3 to recreate historical moments from a single archival photo. That's not vague AI promise language. That's a direct hit on documentary production budgets, historical drama reshoots, and the entire stock footage licensing industry. And they're not alone. Disney already invested $1B in OpenAI and handed Frozen and Star Wars characters to Sora. Banijay just merged with All3Media and is talking up AI capabilities. Now Canal+. When both ends of the market — American blockbuster IP and European prestige cinema — formalize AI partnerships within months of each other, the middle has nowhere to hide. Here's the thing though — and this is what people are missing in all the doom takes: Canal+ simultaneously announced a new deal with Sky to develop English-language drama. At least two projects a year for three years. They're deploying AI AND commissioning more human-driven storytelling at the same time. AI doesn't kill demand for content. It changes the cost structure of producing it. The studios that use AI to make more will win. The ones that only use it to spend less will just be cheaper versions of what they already were. I've been in this industry through every major technology transition. This one feels different in speed. Not in kind. The question on the table for all of us right now: are you positioning yourself as someone who knows how to direct the machines? Or are you waiting to see how this shakes out? Curious what you're seeing from where you sit. Drop it below. 👇