Lionsgate signs deal to train AI model for its movies and shows

Today, Lionsgate — the studio behind films like Jan Wick AND The Hunger Games franchises — announced it was partnering with Runway to create a recent, customized video generation model designed to facilitate “filmmakers, directors and other creative talent advance their work.”

IN statement of transactionLionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns described it as a path to creating “capital-efficient content creation capabilities” for the studio, which sees the technology as “a great tool to extend, enhance and complement our current operations.” Burns also insisted that “several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications in their pre-production and post-production workflows.”

Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela echoed Burns’ sentiment about the recent model’s usefulness as an enabling tool, saying the company aims to provide filmmakers with “new ways to bring their stories to life.”

Details about the deal — such as whether the original teams will be paid if/when their designs are used as training material for the model — are currently insufficient. But How Hollywood Reporter notesthe prospect of keeping production costs low could prove to be one of the main arguments in favor of Lionsgate, a studio known for sticking to smaller budgets compared to other entertainment companies.

Those concerns were part of what led to California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing two SAG-AFTRA-backed bills earlier this week that give performers and their estates more control over how and when their digitally created likenesses can be used by studios. And later this month, Newsom could sign SB 1047, another hotly contested piece of legislation that would hold AI creators liable for “critical harm” caused by their products.

(We reached out to SAG-AFTRA for comment on the partnership between Runway and Lionsgate but did not receive a response before publication.)