Amid backlash and fears, AI startups are quietly creeping into Hollywood

Keanu Reeves has fought machines on-screen. Now, his performances are teaching them.  In September, Lionsgate inked a deal with Runway, permitting the AI firm to train a new generative AI model on its extensive film and TV library, including blockbuster franchises like John Wick, Saw, and The Hunger Games. Lionsgate’s vice-chair Michael Burns believes the partnership will save the studio “millions and millions of dollars” by aiding filmmakers in pre-production and post-production processes.  The move signals just the latest shift in how major studios view AI’s role in filmmaking. It also comes at an inflection point for Hollywood and AI. Like a number of other AI firms, Runway faces legal challenges and copyright infringement claims around its image-generation system. And while actors and writers have secured temporary restrictions over AI, the Animation Guild and the studios remain deadlocked in contract negotiations, many of which focus on the technology. While major studios begin to quietly explore AI’s potential, a wave of startups and smaller organizations are developing AI tools intended to enhance, rather than replace, Hollywood’s creativity. These homegrown solutions, created by industry insiders who understand the unique challenges of film and television production, aim to address specific pain points in the creative process while preserving the human touch that defines great storytelling.  The ultimate success of these tools—and their acceptance by skeptical creatives wary of any AI encroachment—remains an open question in an industry grappling with rapid technological change. One such tool comes from Ryan Turner, chief creative officer at LA-based production company Echobend. Turner has launched a project to turn screenplays into audio using generative AI using technology from the startup ElevenLabs.  Jackie’s script being turned into audio by Ryan Turner at Echobend [Photo: Ryan Turner] The project was inspired by his own struggle: Turner has anywhere from 15 to 50 scripts he’s trying to get through and can’t find time to read during the workday. He would check out more at home, but struggled to keep staring at his screen. “I’m not gonna get home and then open up a PDF,” he says. “It’s the last thing I want to do.” Instead, he figured that an audio rendition of scripts, consumed during commutes, gym sessions, or mundane chores, could be a feasible solution. And he knew he wasn’t the only one dealing with this bottleneck; feedback on scripts typically spans weeks, if not longer. He sensed a larger opportunity. “I don’t think that many people really enjoy the process of opening a PDF and reading a script,” Turner says. “It’s not like a novel—it’s specifically written to be filmed, not read.” While text-to-speech apps exist, screenplays’ distinct structure results in an inelegant auditory experience, such as repetitive character name mentions. Echobend’s solution, utilizing over 30 voices, streamlines the narrative akin to a radio drama, albeit with certain expressive constraints. “If there’s a comedic beat, they’re not going to really hit it,” Turner says. “It’s not going to really nail that reading, but you’re gonna understand that was a joke.” To show it off, Turner took a few pages of a script I wrote, and within 15 minutes of checking that the file didn’t have any weird formatting, selecting voices, and then rendering, the script was now an MP3. Different voices make it clear who is speaking and make it easy to track the story, but some voices are more evocative than others. The sluglines—short descriptions of a scene’s location that are usually fragments of sentences that look like EXT. HOUSE-DAY—weren’t distracting or slowing the story down.  Maybe most importantly, it was more of a production than my script would likely ever get (call me if you’re a producer interested in a High Maintenance–type story following books and their impact in prisons), and hearing it gave me new insight into the flow of the narrative. But the implications go beyond just saving time for producers or writers getting to hear their scripts out loud. For writers, especially those with dyslexia or other reading difficulties, the tool offers a new way to experience their work. Challenges persist: Many voice options predominantly sound like white characters. Turner imagines roping in actors for voice-overs, something the app supports. There are legal risks too: ElevenLabs, the company that makes the AI voices behind Echobend’s project, was sued in August by two actors who claim the company used their voices to train its AI.  While the tool is functional and showcased on Echobend’s website, Turner and his team haven’t yet launched a major marketing push. Instead, they’ve been quietly demonstrating it at film festivals like Cannes and Sundance, gathering feedback and exploring potential markets. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the executive director of SAG-AFTRA, says he had d