The news caught people aback, because it was meant to do, because it inevitably would do. An AI filmmaker was making his own 135-minute movie inspired by The Odyssey — public-domain work, to make certain, but in addition clearly the domain of Christopher Nolan on this Summer of Our Damon-ian Lord 2026.
The filmmaker said he’d hold off from releasing the work — titled Odysseus: The Fall — for no less than one other several weeks. But that didn’t stop the backlash. Just what exactly was the sport of this provocateur, an Iran-born, England-raised Millennial engineer named Ash Koosha? Why was he making a movie on the identical subject as Nolan’s $250 million epic for a number of thousand dollars and no actors?
And the way did his latest feature square with Dreams of Violet, his much more sympathy-producing AI film in regards to the recent Iranian democracy protests, which debuted at Tribeca last month?
That it hit at a moment when Nolan disagreed along with his own star Matt Damon about whether there was a future for large-scale analogue filmmaking (Damon said “I knew that this was the last likelihood I used to be going to must do something like this” and Nolan volleyed back that he was being “defeatist”) only fanned the flames. At heart Koosha gave the impression to be engaged in hastening the end-of-cinema moment Damon was predicting — and with the very source material supposedly staving it off.
So The Hollywood Reporter called Koosha, his brother and collaborator Pooya and his producer (the CNBC founder Tom Rogers, who with the pair has founded the AI-centric film-production banner Fountain 0) to clarify what they were as much as. They’ve a vision of cinema each cogent and, to some, little question provocative and angering.
I imagine the past several days have been slightly intense for you. What has it felt like out of your end because you made this announcement?
Ash Koosha: There’s been loads of excitement, and loads of questions, and loads of confusion. One thing we would like to clear up is that we’re not going against Christopher Nolan. He’s doing what he’s doing within the old world of cinema. And he does it brilliantly. But there’s room for something in the brand new world. I’m an Odyssey fan since I used to be slightly kid — I learned about Nolan’s movie from a Homer-focused Reddit. I’ve been immersed in all of the questions on all the main points, like Agamemnon’s outfits and every little thing else. My goal is just not to make a movie that is identical as his. It’s to make use of the tools to make my very own version of the story.
I feel loads of people saw what you probably did with Dreams of Violet and were OK with it, because you couldn’t safely get into Tehran to shoot and since there’s a humanitarian urgency to that subject. That’s not likely the case here.
AK: I see them as related. Dreams of Violet raised questions and this raises deeper questions — questions which are essential for the industry. “Can we’ve stories on the speed of reports?” “Can other people paint with tools besides people like Christopher Nolan?” “What might be created in the event that they can?”
So that you don’t see this as a trading off of the present hit, like all those knockoff direct-to-video movies we’ve seen for some time now on this blockbuster age. I mean, you’ll be able to understand why people would see it that way.
AK: In no way. I see more as part of a bigger news conversation. Before these AI tools if I had a theory about Odysseus I could write a Substack about him. And a few people would read it but what number of? Now I can put my take right into a film. I can paint my opinion with images and sound and lightweight. And so much more people can see it.
So it’s more of a form of discourse vehicle than a derivative genre.
AK: I call it tangential filmmaking. It’s other stories that may exist with the primary one in cinemas.
Tom Rogers: Obviously it’s hard to be in the identical arena as Christopher Nolan; everyone agrees his Odyssey is the superior film. And we want people to see that film. But hopefully they see ours too. Christopher Nolan is the last word in physical filmmaking and what we’re attempting to do is be the last word in AI filmmaking.
AK: Exactly, you’ll be able to’t judge them on the identical terms. They’re at 125 years and we’re in our infancy. So after all there are going to be bumps within the road. Nevertheless it’s what you’ll be able to achieve by trying. To me the chance is low and the reward is high: a complete latest form of cinema.
TR: We’re just trying to indicate what’s possible while you don’t must worry about budgets. We would like people to see it’s not all slop.
So what’s your specific tackle Odysseus that you’re feeling your film will help make clear?
AK: I don’t think he’s well-understood. I don’t wish to say an excessive amount of but I feel as someone who got here from Iran and moved to the West as a baby I can understand something about his story, about what it means to be removed from home. The way it wasn’t nearly ego motivating him.
When will we actually have the option to see this Odyssey?
Pooya Koosha: We would like to attend some time, no less than until late summer. We don’t want people to feel overloaded and confused. That’s essential to us.
TR: We could have released it now but we’re not attempting to trick people. We would like them to have the option to obviously compare.
I would like to come back back to the concept of tangential filmmaking. It’s a novel view and almost calls to mind the early days of the Web, when everyone began blogging and other people said “but why would you must read anything that isn’t from these big media outlets.” And naturally we did, and so they co-exist. You’re saying Hollywood and filmmaking at the moment are due for a similar treatment — that due to AI we’ll get the identical explosion of bottom-up cinematic content that Web distribution enabled for media.
AK: Yes, exactly. There’s room for all types of cinema and AI finally makes that possible. We’ve had so a few years when making cinema was depending on having enough money, and unless you’re Christopher Nolan you couldn’t make a movie of a certain scale, and even he couldn’t sometimes. The concentration of revenue became a barrier to entry. All of that’s going to go away. That’s what we’re attempting to bring about.
PK: We hope loads of other people are available and do that. That is about something very broad and democratic.
TR: Yes, that’s the entire goal of Fountain 0 — to search for the most effective use of the tools.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask about actors. If tangential filmmaking takes off, the good majority of what we’ll see won’t have them. Is that a vision you foresee, or are OK with?
TR: I feel it will make actors more worthwhile, whether it’s in an old-world movie or live theater. People will wish to see them too, perhaps even greater than they do now.
It’s an interesting vision of co-existence — actors flourishing in some types of cinema after which not occupying this other form; traditional shoots pervading one form but then all these scrappy homemade projects overflowing right alongside them.
AK: That’s all we’re attempting to do. To point out you’ll be able to make great movies in the style that Christopher Nolan does. But you’ll be able to make gorgeous movies using AI models too.