Animals director Ben Affleck reveals hidden AI use
Ben Affleck reveals he used AI for multiple tasks on Netflix thriller Animals, but is keeping the details private ahead of its 9 October release.
Ben Affleck has revealed that he used artificial intelligence for several tasks on his upcoming Netflix thriller Animals, but he wants audiences to experience the film without knowing where to look for it. The director, co-writer and star discussed the technology ahead of the film’s arrival on Netflix on 9 October.
Starring Affleck alongside Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun, Animals follows a couple whose son is kidnapped. Behind that human story, Affleck says AI played a part in bringing the finished film to the screen.
Why Affleck is keeping the details private
Affleck said he used AI “for lots of things” in the film, explaining that identifying each application could undermine the illusion filmmakers work to create. He compared revealing those details to a magician explaining a trick before the audience has seen it performed.
For Affleck, keeping those techniques out of view is part of allowing viewers to believe in the story. He described Animals as “a very human movie” and said he considered it an example of using AI ethically.
He has not supplied a full breakdown of the tasks involved. His comments therefore do not establish that AI was used in every scene, or that particular performances, voices or dialogue were artificially generated.
His growing involvement in filmmaking technology
Affleck’s interest in AI extends beyond Animals. In March, Netflix acquired InterPositive, the filmmaking technology company he founded, and brought him into the business as a senior adviser.
The company develops tools intended to help filmmakers address technical challenges while retaining control over creative decisions. Its development work has included missing shots, background replacements and lighting corrections.
These are the kinds of adjustments that can happen during post-production, the stage when recorded footage is edited and finished alongside sound, colour and visual effects. They illustrate what InterPositive’s technology is designed to support, although Affleck has not identified them individually as techniques used in Animals.
What is Animals about?
The thriller follows Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball and his wife Abigail as they scramble to raise a ransom after their son Denny is kidnapped. Their attempts to bring him home force them to confront secrets and make choices that could destroy the life they have built together.
Affleck plays Mark opposite Washington as Abigail, while Anderson appears as a mysterious fixer called Dayle. Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez also feature in the cast.
The English-language film arrives on Netflix in the UK on Friday 9 October. Alongside the kidnapping plot, it explores the bargains within a marriage and what happens when a couple’s private lives collide with a desperate fight to save their child.
