Roger Avary, the Oscar-winning screenwriter who co-wrote the cult classic Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino, is making a major career pivot. After years of struggling to get traditional film projects off the ground, Avary has fully embraced artificial intelligence. He now has three AI-driven movies in active production through his Texas-based company, General Cinema Dynamics, in partnership with Massive AI Studios .
The filmmaker recently opened up about his journey on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. He explained how adding the term “AI” to his projects suddenly opened doors that had been closed for years. Investors who previously showed no interest are now funding multiple features .
From ‘Impossible’ to Full Production: How AI Changed Everything for Roger Avary
Avary did not hold back when describing the challenges he faced trying to make movies the old-fashioned way. Despite his legendary status for co-writing Pulp Fiction, which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1994, he found it nearly impossible to secure funding for new projects .
“I go out there and try to get stuff made, and it’s almost impossible,” Avary said on the podcast. “And then I built a technology company over the last year, basically making AI movies, and all of a sudden, boom, like that, money gets thrown at it” .
The writer-director pointed out that simply attaching the word “AI” to his pitch made all the difference. Investors viewed it as a technology company rather than just another film production venture .
“Just by attaching the word AI, and that it’s a technology-based company, all of the sudden, investors came in, and we’re in production on three films now,” Avary explained. “It was so easy for me to get that going and so difficult for me to get a traditional movie going through the traditional route. Just put AI in front of it, and all of the sudden, you’re in production on three features” .
Three AI Movies in the Works: Christmas, Easter, and a Romantic War Epic
Avary’s production slate through General Cinema Dynamics and Massive AI Studios includes three distinct projects spanning different genres. Each film targets specific release windows and audiences .
The first project is a family Christmas movie scheduled to hit theaters during the 2026 holiday season. The second is a faith-based feature aimed for an Easter 2027 release. The third project is described as a “big romantic war epic” .
On his X account (formerly Twitter), Avary confirmed the active development status of these films. “My technology company General Cinema Dynamics is working closely with @ai_massive [Massive Studios] to bring feature-length AI productions to theatres,” he posted. “We have three features in active production” .
The filmmaker emphasized that these are not experimental shorts or streaming-only content. These AI-driven projects are intended for theatrical release, marking a significant step for AI-generated filmmaking .
Why Roger Avary Believes AI Is Just the Future of Visual Effects
Avary acknowledges that many people in Hollywood and beyond have strong negative feelings about AI replacing human creativity. However, he sees the technology differently .
“So many people are against AI,” Avary said. “But all it is, is visual effects” .
He draws on his own experience with cutting-edge visual effects, including his work on the motion-capture film Beowulf. Avary breaks down the cost difference in simple terms that any producer would understand .
“What used to be a million dollars a minute is now $5,000 a minute, to do it really, really well. It looks kind of amazing, actually,” Avary explained. “I think, for independent cinema, and for the future of film and television production, these are super exciting times” .
Avary confirmed that his company will be using “a proprietary stack of technology” for these projects, though specific details about the tools and workflow remain under wraps .
Hollywood’s Divided Response to AI Filmmaking
Avary is not alone in exploring AI for film production. Darren Aronofsky’s studio Primordial Soup recently released an AI-animated Revolutionary War series titled On This Day…1776 on Time’s YouTube channel . Director Doug Liman has also announced plans to use AI extensively on his upcoming Bitcoin movie Killing Satoshi, starring Pete Davidson and Casey Affleck, with AI reportedly being used to “adjust” performances .
However, many in the industry remain deeply concerned about AI’s impact. The recent viral AI-generated video showing Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt sparked immediate backlash. The clip was created using Seedance 2.0, an AI video generator, with just a two-line prompt .
The Motion Picture Association issued a strong statement condemning the tool and its parent company ByteDance. They accused the company of engaging in “unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale” and demanded they “immediately cease its infringing activity” .
Major studios including Warner Bros. , The Walt Disney Co. , and NBC Universal are currently involved in litigation against Midjourney over similar copyright concerns .
Political Response: New Bill Targets AI Training Data Transparency
As filmmakers like Avary push forward with AI technology, lawmakers are working to establish new rules. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senator John Curtis (R-UT) introduced the Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting Act .
This bipartisan bill would require companies to file notices with the Register of Copyrights detailing which copyrighted works were used to train their AI datasets. The legislation has received endorsements from major industry guilds including SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America West and East, and the Directors Guild of America .
The bill stops short of requiring AI companies to license copyrighted works for training models. That question remains the subject of multiple lawsuits brought by authors and creators .
What This Means for Independent Filmmaking
For Avary, the shift to AI represents survival for independent cinema. He describes a landscape where mid-budget films have become nearly impossible to finance through traditional channels .
“I go out there and try to get stuff made, and it’s almost impossible,” he repeated during his podcast appearance, emphasizing the frustration that led him to build a technology company .
The cost reduction Avary describes—from $1 million per minute to $5,000 per minute for high-quality visual work—could potentially allow more independent filmmakers to create ambitious projects without studio backing .
Amazon MGM Studios has already publicly embraced AI, with executive Albert Cheng noting that “the cost of creating is so high that it really is hard to make more and it really is hard to take great risk.” Cheng added, “We fundamentally believe that AI can accelerate, but it won’t replace, the innovation and the unique aspects that (humans) bring to create the work” .
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The Unknown Factor: Will Audiences Accept AI Movies?
Despite the technological and financial arguments, a big question remains unanswered. Will general audiences pay to see movies they know are heavily AI-assisted ?
Avary’s upcoming Christmas movie and Easter 2027 faith-based film will serve as test cases. If these projects succeed at the box office, they could pave the way for more AI-driven productions. If audiences reject them, the technology may remain a tool rather than a replacement for traditional filmmaking .
For now, Avary remains optimistic about the path he has chosen. He sees AI not as a threat to cinema but as a logical extension of the visual effects tools filmmakers have used for decades .
As the industry watches these three projects move toward release, one thing is certain: the conversation about AI in Hollywood is far from over, and Roger Avary is now at the center of it.
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