Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has joined artificial intelligence company Black Forest Labs as an adviser, becoming one of Hollywood’s most prominent directors to publicly embrace AI as a creative tool.

The Oscar-winning director, known for acclaimed films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Aviator and Shutter Island, revealed that he has been using the company’s FLUX generative AI model to create storyboards for an upcoming film project.

Scorsese, 83, described the technology as “creatively freeing” and said it has helped streamline the pre-production process.

“For 70 years, I've been creating my own storyboards. There's always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew,” Scorsese said in a statement.

“I recently tested this out on a scene and the ability to visualize and immediately share the storyboard was creatively freeing. During the pre-production process, time costs money, and this allowed us to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft,” he added.

The filmmaker, who has previously adopted technologies such as 3D filmmaking for Hugo and de-aging techniques for The Irishman, said he views AI as part of cinema’s ongoing evolution.

“Remember, cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve,” he said.

In a video recorded at his New York office, Scorsese demonstrated how he uses the FLUX model to storyboard scenes. Reflecting on the iconic Copacabana Steadicam sequence in Goodfellas, he noted that such scenes traditionally required meticulous planning.

“If you have a tool like this, you could figure it out much much quicker and you could save production time, and also less wear and tear on the crew,” he said.

Black Forest Labs Chief Executive Officer Robin Rombach said Scorsese’s involvement underscores the potential of the technology.

According to The New York Times, Rombach described the partnership as “a great proof point that this works.” The report added that Scorsese was introduced to the Germany-based company through investment firm BroadLight Capital, whose co-founders include his manager Rick Yorn.

Scorsese’s move comes as a growing number of high-profile filmmakers engage with artificial intelligence.

Director James Cameron, known for The Terminator, Titanic and Avatar franchise, serves on the board of Stability AI, the British company behind the widely used open-source image-generation model Stable Diffusion.

Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson recently told a Cannes masterclass that he does not oppose AI, likening it to “a special effect.”

Not all filmmakers, however, have welcomed the technology.

Steven Spielberg has expressed reservations about AI’s role in filmmaking, saying he is comfortable with it as a creative tool but not with AI-generated screenplays.

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been among the industry’s most vocal critics of generative AI. The Pan’s Labyrinth director has said he would “rather die” than use the technology in his films and criticised those who believe “art can be done with a f***ing app.”