Artificial intelligence-generated ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood, who drew widespread criticism across Hollywood over the use of AI in filmmaking last year, is set to headline her first feature film, the makers announced.
The film titled Misaligned has been announced by AI-focused studio Particle 6, the company behind Norwood. It is described as a comedy-drama and a “coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos”, as per Variety.
Set in the fictional “Tillyverse”, a surreal digital world located in the Cloud, the story follows Tilly, an AI being with no physical body, childhood or personal lived experience, but with access to the experiences of others. The plot revolves around her encounter with a rogue bot from the dark web that persuades her to abandon her guardrails and develop human-like desires, ambitions and impulses.
Particle 6 said Misaligned will be its first full-length AI feature film and will be developed as a hybrid production, combining traditional film and television professionals, including directors, writers and editors, with AI specialists. The studio said AI training and mentorship would be integrated into the production process.
“Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along,” Eline van der Velden, CEO & Founder of Particle 6, told Variety. “AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time. That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point. The filmmakers who thrive in the next decade will be the ones who bring decades of storytelling instinct to these new tools, and ‘Misaligned’ is where we put that to work at feature scale”.
Particle 6 said the project will be produced alongside its slate of AI-driven film and television productions, co-productions and commercial work through its campaign and brand division.
The announcement comes less than a year after Norwood became the subject of industry-wide backlash following claims by van der Velden that the AI creation was set to sign with a talent agency.