<\/p>\n
\n\tThe news caught people aback, because it was meant to do, because it inevitably would <\/em>do. An AI filmmaker was making his own 135-minute movie inspired by\u00a0The Odyssey<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 public-domain work, to make certain, but in addition clearly the domain of Christopher Nolan on this Summer of Our Damon-ian Lord 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n The filmmaker said he\u2019d hold off from releasing\u00a0the work\u00a0\u2014 titled\u00a0Odysseus: The Fall\u00a0\u2014<\/em>\u00a0for no less than one other several weeks. But that didn\u2019t 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\u2019s $250 million epic for a number of thousand dollars and no actors? <\/p>\n \n\tAnd the way did his latest feature square with\u00a0Dreams of Violet<\/em>, his much more sympathy-producing AI film in regards to the recent Iranian democracy protests, which\u00a0debuted at Tribeca last month?<\/p>\n 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\u00a0(Damon said \u201cI knew that this was the last likelihood I used to be going to must do something like this\u201d and Nolan volleyed back\u00a0that he was being \u201cdefeatist\u201d) only fanned the flames. At heart Koosha gave the impression to be engaged in hastening the end-of-cinema moment Damon was predicting \u2014 and with the very source material supposedly staving it off.<\/p>\n So The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ash Koosha:<\/strong> There\u2019s been loads of excitement, and loads of questions, and loads of confusion. \u00a0One thing we would like to clear up is that we\u2019re not going against Christopher Nolan. He\u2019s doing what he\u2019s doing within the old world of cinema. And he does it brilliantly. But there\u2019s room for something in the brand new world. I\u2019m an\u00a0Odyssey<\/em>\u00a0fan since I used to be slightly kid \u2014 I learned about Nolan\u2019s movie from a Homer-focused Reddit. I\u2019ve been immersed in all of the questions on all the main points, like Agamemnon\u2019s outfits and every little thing else. My goal is just not to make a movie that is identical as his. It\u2019s to make use of the tools to make my very own version of the story.<\/p>\n I feel loads of people saw what you probably did with\u00a0Dreams of Violet<\/em>\u00a0and were OK with it, because you couldn\u2019t safely get into Tehran to shoot and since there\u2019s a humanitarian urgency to that subject. That\u2019s not likely the case here.<\/strong><\/p>\n AK:<\/strong> I see them as related.\u00a0Dreams of Violet<\/em>\u00a0raised questions and this raises deeper questions \u2014 questions which are essential for the industry. \u201cCan we’ve stories on the speed of reports?\u201d \u201cCan other people paint with tools besides people like Christopher Nolan?\u201d \u201cWhat might be created in the event that they can?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So that you don\u2019t see this as a trading off of the present hit, like all those knockoff direct-to-video movies we\u2019ve seen for some time now on this blockbuster age. I mean, you’ll be able to understand why people would see it that way.<\/strong><\/p>\n AK:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s more of a form of discourse vehicle than a derivative genre.<\/strong><\/p>\n AK: <\/strong>I call it tangential filmmaking. It\u2019s other stories that may exist with the primary one in cinemas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tom Rogers:<\/strong> Obviously it\u2019s hard to be in the identical arena as Christopher Nolan; everyone agrees his Odyssey <\/em>is the superior film. And we\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0people to see that film. But hopefully they see ours too. Christopher Nolan is the last word in physical filmmaking and what we\u2019re attempting to do is be the last word in AI filmmaking.<\/p>\n AK:<\/strong> Exactly, you’ll be able to\u2019t judge them on the identical terms. They\u2019re at 125 years and we\u2019re in our infancy. So after all there are going to be bumps within the road. Nevertheless it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n TR:<\/strong> We\u2019re just trying to indicate what\u2019s possible while you don\u2019t must worry about budgets. We would like people to see it\u2019s not all slop.\u00a0<\/p>\n So what’s your specific tackle Odysseus that you’re feeling your film will help make clear?<\/strong><\/p>\n AK:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think he\u2019s well-understood. I don\u2019t 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\u2019t nearly ego motivating him.<\/p>\n When will we actually have the option to see this\u00a0Odyssey<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n Pooya Koosha:<\/strong> We would like to attend some time, no less than until late summer. We don\u2019t want people to feel overloaded and confused. That\u2019s essential to us.<\/p>\n TR:<\/strong> We could have released it now but we\u2019re not attempting to trick people. We would like them to have the option to obviously compare.<\/p>\n I would like to come back back to the concept of tangential filmmaking. It\u2019s a novel view and almost calls to mind the early days of the Web, when everyone began blogging and other people said \u201cbut why would you must read anything that isn\u2019t from these big media outlets.\u201d And naturally we did, and so they co-exist. You\u2019re saying Hollywood and filmmaking at the moment are due for a similar treatment \u2014 that due to AI we\u2019ll get the identical explosion of bottom-up cinematic content that Web distribution enabled for media.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tAK: <\/strong>Yes, exactly. There’s room for all types of cinema and AI finally makes that possible. We\u2019ve had so a few years when making cinema was depending on having enough money, \u00a0and unless you\u2019re Christopher Nolan you couldn\u2019t make a movie of a certain scale, and even he couldn\u2019t sometimes. The concentration of revenue became a barrier to entry. All of that’s going to go away. That\u2019s what we\u2019re attempting to bring about.<\/p>\n PK:<\/strong> We hope loads of other people are available and do that. That is about something very broad and democratic.<\/p>\n TR: <\/strong>Yes, that\u2019s the entire goal of Fountain 0 \u2014 to search for the most effective use of the tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t ask about actors. If tangential filmmaking takes off, the good majority of what we\u2019ll see won\u2019t have them. Is that a vision you foresee, or are OK with?<\/strong><\/p>\n TR:<\/strong> I feel it will make actors more worthwhile, whether it\u2019s in an old-world movie or live theater. People will wish to see them too, perhaps even greater than they do now.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an interesting vision of co-existence \u2014 actors flourishing \u00a0in some types of cinema after which not occupying this other form<\/strong>; traditional shoots pervading one form but then all these scrappy homemade projects overflowing right alongside them.<\/strong><\/p>\n AK:<\/strong> That\u2019s all we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u00a0The Odyssey\u00a0\u2014 public-domain work, to make certain, but in addition clearly the domain of Christopher Nolan on this Summer of Our Damon-ian Lord 2026.\u00a0 The filmmaker said he\u2019d hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20669],"tags":[1183,14969,3905,8704,18885],"class_list":["post-369481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","tag-chris","tag-filmmakers","tag-live","tag-nolan","tag-odyssey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t