--- title: "Premiere of Movie With AI-Generated Script Canceled Amid Outrage" description: "The premier of a movie featuring an entirely AI-generated script was canceled last week due to public backlash, reports say." date: "2024-06-21" modified: "2024-06-21" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/movie-ai-generated-script-canceled" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "film industry" - "movies" - "the digest" --- # Premiere of Movie With AI-Generated Script Canceled Amid Outrage ![The premier of a movie featuring an entirely AI-generated script was canceled last week due to public backlash, reports say.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## London Has Spoken The premier of a movie featuring an entirely AI-generated script was canceled last week amid public backlash, *[The Daily Beast ]()*[reports]()*.* Per the *Beast*, the not-for-profit movie, titled "The Last Screenwriter," was due to debut this weekend at London's Prince Charles Cinema. But just a few days prior to the planned event, the showing was suddenly canceled. The cinema's reason for axing it, according to director Peter Luisi? Complaints. Lots of them. Luisi told the *Beast* that the theater — which reportedly received over 200 complaints in total — reached out to him on Tuesday, explaining that "overnight they had another 160 people complaining, so they had to cancel the screening." "I was totally surprised," Luisi added. "I didn't expect that." In short, Londoners have spoken — and it seems that enough of them aren't interested in a film that credits GPT-4 as its writer. ## Strong Concern Luisi, for his part, says that people misunderstood the film's intentions. "I think people don't know enough about the project," the director told the *Beast*. "All they hear is 'first film written entirely by AI' and they immediately see the enemy, and their anger goes towards us. But I don't feel like that way at all. I feel like the film is not at all saying 'this is how movies should be.'" The director also described the film as an exploration of the "man versus machine" trope, telling the *Beast* that in "all of these movies, a human imagined how this scenario would be." His is "the first movie" in which "not the human, but the AI imagined how this would be." Of course, it could be argued that *because* GPT-4 is trained on troves upon troves of human data — including humanity's creative output — whatever screenplay the AI spits it is ultimately still *imagined* by humans. A large language model (LLM)-powered AI, then, is simply remixing that creative labor and regurgitating a version of it. But we digress! As AI continues its [ever-faster creep]() into the film industry, not to mention [Hollywood labor disputes and union battles](), this certainly won't be the last AI-forward project that we see bubble up. A fair warning to the AI-curious filmmaker, however: as it turns out, a lot of people still want their movies created by human beings. "The feedback we received over the last 24 hrs once we advertised the film," the Prince Charles Cinema [told *The Guardian*]() in a statement, "has highlighted the strong concern held by many of our audience on the use of AI in place of a writer which speaks to a wider issue within the industry.⁠" **More on AI and movies:** [*Ashton Kutcher Threatens That Soon, Ai Will Spit out Entire Movies*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()