Movies
Hazardous Totem ‘Contagion’ Poster
Earlier this week Warner Bros. Pictures dropped the tense trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, their thriller starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Josie Ho, Demetri Martin, Jennifer Ehle, Bryan Cranston and Elliott Gould.
With the San Diego Comic-Con underway, they’ve unveiled the official one sheet that’s quite hazardous. The eye-catching poster puts the title on display as a totem listing out all of the contaminated cities. In short: you’re f*cked.
“The pic follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.”
It infects theaters September 9.
Movies
‘Backrooms’ Director Kane Parsons Is No Fan of Generative AI: “Defeats the Purpose Entirely for Me”
There has been a lot of talk recently about filmmakers embracing generative AI as part of the filmmaking process, from Darren Aronofsky to Martin Scorsese. But what about filmmakers that are against the use of Gen AI for creative pursuits? You can count 20-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons among that group, which should give you some hope for the future.
In a new chat with The Australian, the self-taught young filmmaker makes it crystal clear that he won’t be using generative AI in any of his upcoming filmmaking projects.
“I think I’m in the same boat as most well-adjusted people,” Parsons tells the outlet. “If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me.”
“What interests me more is interrogating it artistically,” Parsons notes. “We already live in a world where you walk outside and there are billboards and signs that are obvious AI slop. That’s become part of our visual reality. To me, generative AI feels less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot.”
He explains, “I’m interested in using that iconography in art – not using AI to make the art itself, but examining what it represents. I definitely want to explore it further in future projects.”
Kane Parsons also notes during the interview with The Australian, “… there’s so much at stake and so many genuinely harmful consequences already happening.”
Backrooms marks young prodigy Kane Parsons’ feature directorial debut, and it’s based on his own series of YouTube videos that were partially brought to life using Blender, the open-source 3D computer graphics software. So it’s no surprise that Parsons, who has hand-made his filmmaking career up to this point, isn’t buying into the hoopla around Generative AI.
What’s next from Kane Parsons, you ask? Stay tuned…
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