8 startups bringing AI tech to Netflix, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and more Hollywood studios — and attracting millions in VC funding
Generative AI has spawned a raft of tools with real-life applications to Hollywood — and VCs are getting in on the action.
Startups focused on filmed entertainment have raised millions in funding in the past couple of years as investors see the potential for AI tech to dramatically change how TV shows and movies are made.
Driving the action are tools for de-aging and other special effects work from companies like Deep Voodoo and MARZ. Other growing applications of AI include dubbing, recreating voices of bygone actors, and restoring old films and TV series.
The number of new original series has soared in recent years to feed the booming appetite for streaming content. The pitch of these startups is that their tools can aid artists overwhelmed by the explosion of work associated with that growth.
Matt Panousis, COO of MARZ, said the company has a forthcoming tool, Vanity AI, that reduces to 20 minutes what it used to take a special effects artist three days to do. “Anything you can do in VFX that saves time and capacity is welcomed with open arms,” he said.
Investors are flocking to these companies because they figure if the new AI tools they’re making can satisfy Hollywood’s standards for quality and verisimilitude, other industries will fall in line to use them, too.
Investment in AI startups for entertainment is “blowing up right now,” said Michael Blank, head of consumer investing at CAA. Blank leads Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between the agency and VC firm NEA that led a recent $20 million investment in Deep Voodoo — which was previously funded entirely by Park County, “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s production company.
“I think Hollywood’s going to be leading because the companies that rise to the top will be the ones that can work at the highest quality bar,” Blank added.
To be sure, Hollywood creative stakeholders share the broader concerns about generative AI taking people’s jobs and stealing artists’ content. There are also worries about the nascent technology being used to deceive viewers and exploit actors.
There are already AI tools that can write full scripts. Down the road, people working AI predict it will be used to create entire movie characters and scores and to personalize video game experiences.
“All elements of how you make content will be influenced by generative AI — generating parts of faces, backgrounds,” said Thomas Graham, CEO of Metaphysic, a London-based AI startup known for its Tom Cruise deepfakes. “Over 10, 15 years, it’ll touch every part of content creation.”
Vendors and investors told Insider that over time, AI tools will change jobs, not replace them. Chatbot-written scripts aren’t ready for primetime — at least not yet. And in bringing down the cost of production, the argument goes, AI will ultimately create more jobs by freeing up funding for more projects.
“We’ve taken clients to experience this firsthand and a number of times, the response has been, there’s a movie I’ve always wanted to make that I didn’t think was possible because of the technology, and now I know it is,” Blank said of deepfake technology.
Insider scouted eight dynamic AI-centered companies that have raised capital in recent years, listed in alphabetical order. Here’s how they’re partnering with — and disrupting — Hollywood.
Deep Voodoo
The AI startup formed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone grew out of their independent entertainment company, Park County. The pair were building deepfake technology in early 2020 for a feature film they had developed. When the pandemic suspended production, they pivoted to building deepfake tools for the industry. In December they secured their first outside investment, a $20 million round led by Connect Ventures, a partnership between their talent agency, CAA, and Maryland-based VC firm NEA.
Deep Voodoo showed off its face-swapping tool with an acclaimed Kendrick Lamar video that replaces his face with those of O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, and others. The company plans to use its fresh funding to develop deepfake technology, visual effects services, and synthetic media projects.
Deepdub
Tel Aviv’s Deepdub is trying to capitalize on the growth of foreign-language content by using generative AI to dub movies and shows. It raised $20 million last year in a Series A round led by Insight Partners, for a total of $26 million. Among its angel investors are former HBO Max exec Kevin Reilly and former Fox and Endemol Shine exec Emiliano Calemzuk, who both serve on the company’s advisory board.
Deepdub became the first company to dub an entire feature film into Latin American Spanish using AI and in 2021 entered a partnership with Topic.com to dub its foreign TV shows into English. It said it’s working with a number of Hollywood studios, though it won’t reveal which ones. Oz Krakowski, CRO, told Insider a new platform that lets content creators and corporations localize their content is also in the works.
DGene
DGene is trying to use AI to transform production and entertainment. The Shanghai-based company said it’s raised $20 million in a Series A led by Alibaba. The funding helped it expand to the US in 2021 under CTO Jason Yang, an MIT-trained computer scientist; and SVP Helena Packer, a VFX artist whose credits include “XMen2,” “21 Jump Street,” and “Charlie Wilson’s War.” DGene has opened a facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that uses AI to create holograms for AR, VR, holographic displays, and more; collaborators have included producer Jeff Apple.
DGene also supplies restoration tools that use AI to revive old films and TV shows so they can be seen on streaming platforms.
MARZ
Founded in 2018, Toronto-based MARZ (Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies) is the VFX studio behind Marvel’s “WandaVision” and the Netflix adaptation of “Shadow and Bone.” It raised about $5 million in a Series A in 2021, led by Round13 Capital with participation from Rhino Ventures and Harlo Equity Partners. MARZ’s credits include creating Thing, the iconic disembodied hand, for Netflix’s hit “Addams Family” spinoff “Wednesday.”
In addition to developing its core VFX services and Vanity AI, its first AI-based VFX tool for targeted launch in June, MARZ is working on a tool to fix poorly synchronized dubbing, which COO Matt Panousis believes will help media companies as they look abroad to fuel their growth. “We think this is a big reason content doesn’t translate well,” he said.
Metaphysic
The London-based AI startup known for Tom Cruise deepfakes that went viral on TikTok raised $7.5 million in January 2022 from Section 32, along with 8VC, TO Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and Logan Paul. The startup, which also got attention for creating Elvis deepfakes for “America’s Got Talent” in 2022, just struck a partnership with talent agency CAA to develop generative AI tools and services for clients, like the de-aging work it’s doing with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright for the upcoming Robert Zemeckis film “Here.”
CEO Thomas Graham told Insider Metaphysic’s AI can make it as much as three times less costly to do special effects. “Even for a regular movie, the effects budget is a very significant part of the costs because it requires a human touch,” he said. “Our technology is more sophisticated and also cheaper versus the traditional way.”
Respeecher
Founded in 2018, Respeecher is a Ukrainian startup that uses archival recordings and AI to clone voices of bygone actors for movies and video games. Most notably, it worked through the Russian invasion of Ukraine to de-age James Earl Jones’ voice for Darth Vader in the Disney+ series ”Obi-Wan Kenobi.” It also worked with Lucasfilm to bring back Luke Skywalker’s voice for the streamer’s “The Book of Boba Fett.” “It’s a big honor to work with Lucasfilm, and I’ve been a fan of ‘Star Wars’ since I was a kid,” Bogdan Belyaev, a synthetic speech artist at Respeecher, told Vanity Fair.
Respeecher also remade Richard Nixon’s voice for the short doc “Event of Moon Disaster,” for which it won an Emmy. Started by a group of friends and colleagues, Respeecher has raised $3 million from Ff Venture Capital, Acrobator Ventures, and others.
Runway
Runway has a suite of video editing software used by creatives across entertainment as well as advertising and media. Its tools let users do a wide range of things like replace or insert objects on the screen by entering text or changing colors. Entertainment clients include studios and production companies like Harbor Picture Company and The Mill. Runway was used in editing the Oscar-nominated film “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The company has raised $96 million to date from such backers as Felicis, Coatue, and Amplify, including $50 million in Series C in December. Founder and CEO Cris Valenzuela said the goal is to make content creation accessible to everyone by expanding Runway tools. Its latest, called Gen-1, lets users create new videos from existing ones using words and images.
Wonder Dynamics
Co-founded by “X-Men” and “Ready Player One” star Tye Sheridan with VFX expert Nikola Todorovic, Wonder Dynamics has attracted a lineup of big-name investors, raising $9 million in a Series A in December 2021 from Epic Games, Samsung, and others after a $2.5 million seed round earlier that year.
The founders’ goal is to use AI and VFX to enable artists to make visually big films at a low cost. The company just announced its first product, Wonder Studio, a web-based AI platform that lets artists create films with CGI characters. It’s in beta and being used by the Russo Brothers on their upcoming film, “Electric State,” starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.
“We are just filmmakers who, like many other artists in our industry, didn’t have a budget for the kind of sci-fi films we wanted to make, so we set out to make AI tools that eliminate huge cost barriers,” Todorovic said in a statement.
This article was initially published in Business Insider.
