District 9, Elysium, and Gran Turismo director Neill Blomkamp has shared his latest project, which - not too surprisingly - the majority of the filmmaker's fans aren't exactly enthusiastic about.
The 13-minute sci-fi horror short, Nightborne, was created using AI, although Blomkamp does note that the film "features the faces and voices of real people." He also announced plans to tackle a fully AI feature-length film at some point.
"I've been experimenting with AI for a couple of years, and it's now at the point where I want to tackle a full feature in this format," Blomkamp said on X. "This is a 13-minute test start. It was made with real concept artists, and features the faces and voices of 32 real people. Barley Studios will be my new AI studio for creating my own films, the way Oats Studios was for traditional film and VFX."
Nightborne's story focuses on a helicopter pilot shot down and killed in action, and the revelation that his superiors are actually creating zombies in order to build an army of super soldiers.
The logline reads: "A U.S. Army pilot is shot down and declared killed in action. Her husband buries an empty casket. The tapes say otherwise. ‘Nightborne’ is a 13-minute sci-fi horror film from director Neill Blomkamp — the first release from Barley Studios. Told as a documentary: interviews, recovered program footage, and the recordings of a scientist who walked out of a classified defense program that puts dead soldiers back on the battlefield.”
It's an intriquing concept, but the announcement has been met with a significant amount of backlash (have a read through some of the responses to his X post below).
While some feel that this is simply a case of a filmmaker embracing new technology (yes, AI has its defenders), others had no problem at all telling Blomkamp what they made of his short.
Last year, we got word that Blomkamp is set to write and direct a new Starship Troopers movie, and will also produce alongside Terri Tatchell, his partner and wife, who co-wrote District 9 and 2015's Chappie. According to the trades, this will not be a remake or reboot of Paul Verhoeven's 1997 movie, but a more direct adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's controversial 1959 novel.
We haven't had any updates since, but it's assumed that the project is still moving forward.
You can watch Nightborne for yourselves at the link below, and let us know what you think in the comments.