Martin Scorsese Backs AI Company Black Forest Labs for Storyboards

It’s a somewhat strange headline-heavy week for one of the titans of global cinema: One day after popping up on the cover of Charli XCX’s new album, Martin Scorsese has announced his backing of a new artificial intelligence start-up called Black Forest Labs. 

Per The New York Times, Scorsese signed on as a partner and adviser to Black Forest Labs last year. His ties were made public today with a press release and a video showing how Scorsese used the company’s image generation tool, Flux, while storyboarding his next film, What Happens at Night. 

The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, follows a couple as they travel to a small European town to adopt a baby. The video shows Scorsese using the AI tool to generate visuals of what the town might look like. 

“I’m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences,” Scorsese said in a statement. “Remember, cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve.”

Scorsese’s use of Flux appears entirely limited to storyboarding (how filmmakers map out shots during pre-production). While Scorsese has created his own storyboards for decades, he said in his statement that there’s “always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew.”

He added that Flux allowed him to “share what I’m visualizing more clearly and efficiently to my creative team,” and called the process “creatively freeing.” He also noted it allowed the production to save money while moving “faster without sacrificing quality or craft.” 

Still, Scorsese’s endorsement of an AI product will almost certainly spark controversy. Adoption of AI in film (and other creative industries) has been deeply contentious and divisive, with many creatives viewing it as an existential threat and/or conduit for mediocrity. For instance, at the Cannes Film Festival, Guillermo del Toro bemoaned living in an age where people think “that art can be done with a fucking app.”

But many Hollywood heavyweights have already signed onto AI in some capacity. James Cameron is on the board of directors for Stability AI, which created another text-to-image generator. (The CEO of Black Forest Labs used to work at Stability.) And Peter Jackson has incorporated AI tech into his creative process, recently comparing it to “a special effect.”