US President Donald Trump has placed the Caribbean island under a de facto oil blockade, straining its ageing power grid.
Cuba has reported its second nationwide blackout in less than a week, plunging the island into darkness shortly before evening.
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On Friday, the Union Electrica de Cuba, the state-owned utility in charge of the electrical grid, announced that the outage began at 4:30pm local time (20:30 GMT).
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list of 3 items
list 1 of 3Cuba sees nationwide power blackout for third time in six months
list 2 of 3Cuba loses power across nation for third time this year
list 3 of 3At UN, Cuba rallies support against ‘ruthless’ US blockade
end of list
No explanation was given for the blackout. But it follows a similar power failure on Monday, bringing the total number of island-wide outages to four since the start of the year. Two other total blackouts struck in March.
Outages are not uncommon in Cuba, where the electricity infrastructure is increasingly aged. Much of the system dates to the Cold War period, between 1960 and 1980.
But the problem has intensified since January, when United States President Donald Trump effectively severed Cuba’s supply of foreign oil.
Already, Cuba has been under the longest-running trade embargo in modern history. Since the 1960s, the US has largely barred trade with the island, which sits roughly 140 kilometres — or 90 miles — from its shores.
Since taking office for a second term, though, Trump has sought to trigger regime change on the communist-led island. Critics have long accused the government in Havana of human rights abuses, including the violent suppression of dissent.
On January 3, Trump authorised a military operation against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a socialist leader and ally of the Cuban government. The operation culminated in Maduro’s abduction and transport to New York, where he remains imprisoned on drug- and weapons-related charges.
Shortly after Maduro’s removal, Trump announced that Venezuela would no longer send oil or money to Cuba. His administration has continued to control Venezuelan oil exports in the months since.
Then, on January 29, Trump issued an executive order declaring that Cuba “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the US. As part of the order, he threatened any country that supplies the island with fuel with steep tariffs.
Since then, only a single Russian oil tanker has reached Cuban soil — but that was in March.
As of 2023, Cuba only produces 40 percent of the oil it uses, according to the International Energy Agency. The rest comes from overseas.
Human rights experts have warned that the continued fuel deprivation could have consequences for Cuba’s civilian population, as public services like transportation shut down.
In June, the high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, Volker Turk, pointed to statistics that showed infant mortality nearly doubled in recent months.
“The fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and recent tightening of extraterritorial sanctions, taken together, are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable,” Turk said in a statement.
“Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines. This is unacceptable.”
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has blamed mismanagement in the Cuban government for the blackouts.
“We’ve done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Al Jazeera in March.
Prior to the fuel blockade, Cuba had planned to shift some of its energy infrastructure away from fossil fuels, in favour of solar and other renewable energy sources.
It has sped up that transition, with the help of solar technology imported from the US’s main economic rival, China.
Still, renewable energy only accounts for about 18 percent of Cuba’s overall energy consumption, according to estimates from 2022. Cuba aims to produce nearly a quarter of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. %!s()
The last few years of anticipation for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been all about what's next. When's the first trailer coming? When's the second trailer dropping? When will pre-orders open? How much will it cost? When will marketing kick into high gear? Now, everyone is waiting on the third and possibly final trailer before the November 19 release date. Let's talk GTA.
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Key Facts At A Glance
Game: Grand Theft Auto 6
Release date: November 19, 2026 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Digital preload: November 12, 2026
Pre-orders: Live now — $79.99 Standard, $99.99 Ultimate
Trailer 3: Unreleased as of publish; projected late July to August
What Has Rockstar Confirmed About GTA 6 Trailer 3?
How about nothing? It's true. To be honest, we don't know for sure that there will be a third trailer. That said, conventional wisdom suggests there will be because there's still so much we don't know.
What is locked is the release date and the money behind it. GTA 6 arrives November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the digital preload set for Nov. 12.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
Pre-orders opened June 25 at $79.99 for the Standard Edition and $99.99 for Ultimate, arriving alongside the official cover art and new logo. Rockstar took that money with no fresh trailer attached, which is exactly why the Trailer 3 wait has gotten so loud.
What Does Rockstar's Trailer History Tell Us?
This is the good news. There's historical reference that says a third trailer is coming pretty soon.
GTA 6's own cadence is already long. Trailer 1 landed Dec. 4, 2023, and Trailer 2 followed on May 6, 2025, roughly 17 months later.
The two most recent Rockstar launches set the rhythm. Red Dead Redemption 2 dropped its third trailer about six months before its October 2018 release and its first gameplay trailer roughly 78 days out. GTA 5 ran six pre-launch trailers and didn’t truly ramp marketing until the final four months, part of the same backloaded playbook that survives even as Rockstar changes other big things from GTA 5.
When Could GTA 6 Trailer 3 Drop?
I believe the third trailer will drop in early August, and there will be an extended look at gameplay that is sure to be overanalyzed and flipped with AI tools ad nauseam.
The history backs that read. Apply GTA 5's final-four-months ramp to a Nov. 19 launch and the window opens in mid-July, while RDR2's roughly 78-to-85-day gameplay-trailer timing points toward late August, since 85 days before Nov. 19 lands on Aug. 26.
The calendar cooperates too. Take-Two’s next earnings call is expected in early August, the July 19 World Cup final offers the social-first stage Rockstar has said it wants, and the latest projections have converged on that same late-July-to-August range.
What Should You Expect From Trailer 3?
A ton of story details, more beautiful visuals and even deeper looks at specific locations in the game. Those are the surest bets.
Both prior trailers leaned cinematic, heavier on mood than mechanics, so more of Lucia and Jason plus a wider look at Leonida tracks with the pattern, as laid out in the earlier Trailer 3 breakdown.
The real pressure point is gameplay. Millions pre-ordered without seeing a second of raw mechanics, and if Rockstar runs the RDR2 script, a dedicated gameplay trailer arrives after the cinematic one rather than sharing its spotlight. That is the video that turns anticipation into a countdown. %!s()
Yes, Caleb McDaniel knows he’s the internet’s boyfriend.
Caleb quickly rose to fame on Season 8 of “Love Island USA,” entering the villa with about 10,000 Instagram followers, and now sitting with more than 1 million just one week after leaving the show.
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“I’m waiting to wake up from a dream right now. It’s just been overwhelming love,” Caleb tells Variety. “The fact that there is very little hate, and the only thing people really have to say about me is I’m boring? It’s been great.”
Entering at the end of the sixth episode, Caleb arrived as a bombshell alongside Jennifer “Jen” Terry and Sol Dean. America voted to couple Caleb up with Mackenzie “Kenzie” Annis, who he was intent on pursuing. His efforts dragged him into a love triangle with Annis and her former partner, Corbin Mims, which ultimately left Caleb single ahead of Casa Amor, the show’s midseason twist.
Caleb coupled up with Jaiden Bacciocco while in Casa, and the two of them returned to the villa together. When their fellow islanders were later asked to vote on the two least compatible couples, Caleb and Bacciocco were sent home, along with Gal Tshnieder and Amora Robinson on Episode 27.
While his “Love Island” journey may have come to an end, Caleb is just getting started. Season 8 became Peacock’s most-watched TV debut ever, and he’s ready to “ride the train” of its success. Caleb says he’s open to any opportunities that may come his way, which includes trying his hand at acting (“People tell me I kind of resemble Matthew McConaughey”).
The “Love Island USA” season finale airs this Sunday on Peacock. Until then, Caleb is waiting for his former contestants to join him outside the villa, and, no, the internet’s very strong opinions haven’t changed how he views his friendships.
“This is controversial, but I love Sincere,” he says. “I don’t love the way he goes about things, but whenever it’s just me and him and we can vibe and talk about anything other than his connection and what he’s doing, it’s good.”
Below, Caleb talks to Variety about his unexplored connection with Melanie Moreno, his thoughts on “Brinity” and where he and Jaiden stand now.
What was it like getting your phone back and seeing everybody’s reaction on social media?
It’s been insane. Coming off the show, I was not expecting this much. I was in my head like, “If I’ve got 50,000 followers, that’d be insane.” And then seeing what I have is absolutely out of this world. It doesn’t feel real. I’m waiting to wake up from a dream right now, but it’s just been overwhelming love. The fact that there is very little hate, and the only thing people really have to say about me is I’m boring? It’s been great.
You’re posting videos online now that show a lot of your personality that we didn’t get to see on the show. Do you think that’s because of the editing, or would you say you were more reserved in the Villa?
I would definitely say I was a little bit more reserved just because it’s a wild environment. I’m a little bit in an uncomfortable situation, but I also feel like my personality wasn’t portrayed as much as I would have wanted it to. I was very unproblematic. I didn’t have much drama, and this show is based on drama. If you’re not going to put me in there because I’m not dramatic, I’m fine with that. I’d much rather be myself and get less screen time.
We’re getting to see the full picture now.
It’s not performative. People say I’m performative. I’m like, “No, this is just me. I’m sorry you didn’t see this in there, but this is actually me.”
I’m sure you’ve seen that you’re basically the internet’s boyfriend now. Have you been seeing all of the edits?
I have. It’s insane not being able to walk 200 feet without pictures, and, honestly, I love it. Just to know this many people support me has been insane. Seeing myself on my For You page, I’m like “OK, this is probably just because it’s my phone and I’ve been liking this stuff.” But then everyone is reaching out to me saying “You’re all over the internet.” I’m just now starting to realize that it’s as big as it is.
You worked on elevators before the show. With all the attention now, do you see yourself going back to that?
Hell no. I remember sitting at work one day, and these older guys were talking about how they would go back and change so much about their life, just warning me to get out of the trade while I could. If I were to sit there and continue doing that until the day I die, then I would have been holding myself back so much. I’m so happy to be out of that. It’s a very, very risky job. I had many instances where I could have got seriously injured.
What do you have planned next?
I’m definitely going to ride the train and see where this goes. I’m probably going to get out of Charleston. Not too sure where that is yet, maybe L.A., maybe Miami, just more connections. More freedom. Charleston is bigger than Asheboro, but it’s still pretty small, so there’s not a whole lot going on here. Now I’m really up for anything. Maybe, down the road, acting. I’m trying to soak it all in and not really think too far in the future. I’m excited for anything that comes my way, and I’m very open-minded to whatever happens.
Let’s talk about acting. Would you star in a rom-com? Drama? What’s the dream?
Growing up, I always loved Matthew McConaughey, and people tell me I kind of resemble him. I love his stuff, so maybe stuff like that. I love the “Fast and Furious” franchise as well. Some action or drama would be cool.
Ben Symons/Peacock
How are you and Jaiden doing right now?
We’ve stayed in contact. We’re still texting and talking. Everything’s going good between us. We haven’t really had the time to actually talk to each other about what this is, and how we’re going to go about things. We’ve both been so busy since we’ve got back. We still need to have conversations and see where everything’s at. It’s still very early, so the long distance thing is also something that’s pretty scary. We’re going to have to cross that bridge when it comes to it.
Have you reached out to any other Islanders since being back home?
Me and Gal had came home together. America is going to hate this, but I like Gal. He’s a really cool dude. I also reached out to Gabe. He’s already ready for me to come down to Miami and hang out, so I’m looking forward to that. I did finally get to meet Sean.
How was that?
It was good. He’s a really good dude. I haven’t talked to him over the phone yet, but we texted a little bit.
Who are you most excited to see again?
Really everybody. This is controversial, but I love Sincere. I don’t love the way he goes about things, but whenever it’s just me and him and we can vibe and talk about anything other than his connection and what he’s doing, it’s good. I think he’s a good friend. Maybe not as good of a relationship guy. He did really go about things in a really wrong way, and I was the first one to tell him, “You’re really fucking up dude.” And the thing is, he would acknowledge that. But then he does it again. When I walked in there, he was the first one to welcome me in with open arms. It was hard for me to be pissed at him for the way he was moving. I was frustrated with it. I’m sure everyone was, but I do think he is a good guy. I think [him and Melanie] could work through it.
Who do you want to win? Are you team Melanie and Sincere?
I think Bryce and Trinity are really cute. They’re probably one of my favorite couples, just because of their whole journey. They have been the slowest burn I’ve ever seen. The fact that they’re so into just wanting everything to do with each other, it’s really cute.
On “Aftersun,” you said one of your regrets was not getting to explore your connection with Melanie. Is there anything else you regret?
When I said that, I was more so meaning that when I went in there, I went straight after Kenzie. I didn’t get to explore other things. Me and Melanie did have a few chats, and they were really good. It wasn’t something that I was like, “I need to talk to Melanie as well.” It was more so like walking in there, she was a girl I wanted to chat to. It fizzled out a little bit, because of the way her and Sincere were both going through so much together, and Sincere being one of my good friends in there, I was helping him through so much. I was telling him how to go about everything, so me giving him all this advice, I want to see him use that. I want to see him win. So for me to go behind his back would be kind of hypocritical.
This interview has been edited and condensed. %!s()
Some Democrats are demanding an independent investigation into the fatal ICE shooting on Tuesday of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston—at least the third killing this year connected to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in major cities.
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Lorenzo Salgado Jr., left, and Ronaldo Salgado, right, sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, are shown during a news conference about the ICE shooting death of their father in Houston Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Key Facts
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus asked Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday for a “full, independent and transparent investigation” into the shooting, noting the agency “has provided no evidence to support” claims made hours after his death Salgado Araujo “weaponized” his vehicle “in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.”
The letter called it a “predictable consequence of an enforcement regime driven by arrest quotas rather than public safety,” noting ICE appears to have ramped up its anti-immigration crackdown, arresting 2,000 people per day in the final five days of June.
The three men in the vehicle with Salgado Araujo said there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle when they were stopped, The Washington Post reported, citing statements obtained from the men’s attorney Balderas-Ibarra.
Balderas-Ibarra told the Post the men said agents “came in and started shooting from the sides.”
The circumstances surrounding the shooting—a chaotic scene, followed immediately by a statement from DHS claiming agents were threatened—mirrors those surrounding the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed in two separate incidents in Minneapolis in January.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., also called for an investigation into the shooting, and Reps. Sylvia Garcia, Lizzie Fletcher, Al Green and Christian Menefee, all Texas Democrats, sent a letter to DHS this week demanding a probe.
Chief Critics
“DHS and ICE continue to lose the American people’s trust and confidence. Instead of answers and accountability, DHS and ICE released a statement echoing the same stories we have heard before,” Garcia, Fletcher, Green and Menefee said in their letter. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said “tragedies like this are exactly why we can’t keep funding Trump’s ICE” in a post on X Friday, adding that “the agents must be held accountable for his killing.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said “we absolutely cannot trust ICE to conduct a fair and impartial investigation,” in a statement, adding, “ICE has consistently lied about similar incidents with Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” referring to the Trump administration’s allegations that they were trying to harm law enforcement, despite video evidence in the moments leading up to their shootings contradicting their claims. Kamala Harris said she and others “continue to be outraged by the horrific and cruel actions of ICE under the Trump administration” and joined Salgado Araujo’s son in calling for an “immediate, independent, and transparent investigation.” Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, described his father as “a simple man, a family man, a man of routine” who “dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream,” in an emotional press conference. “He did not deserve to die, he did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,’” he said.
Tangent
A Trump official told the Post the ICE officers involved in the shooting were not wearing body camera footage. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus demanded in its letter that DHS preserve all evidence and immediately release it to the public. Federal officials have refused to release the name of the officer who shot Salgado Araujo.
Key Background
Salgado Araujo’s family said he was an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for more than three decades, and a business owner with no criminal record. The men were headed to a construction site in a work van when an unmarked vehicle began following them early Tuesday before turning on its warning lights, the passengers told Balderas-Ibarra, according to the Post. ICE vehicles then surrounded the van and agents began firing from the passenger side of the vehicle, hitting Salgado Araujo in the abdomen, according to the eyewitnesses’ accounts. The three men who were in the vehicle with Salgado Araujo were detained and are undergoing deportation proceedings. DHS said officers stopped the van because someone inside of it resembled a person they were looking for, according to PBS. A DHS spokesperson told the New York Times Salgado Araujo was not their intended target and none of the people in the van ended up being the person they were searching for.
further reading
Texas ICE Shooting Victim Was Not The Arrest Target, Lawmaker Says (Forbes)
ICE And CBP Heads Refuse Questions On Alex Pretti And Renee Good’s Deaths In Heated Congressional Hearing (Forbes)
Kristi Noem Denies Calling Alex Pretti A ‘Domestic Terrorist’ (Forbes) %!s()
Disney is famous for innovation, but the new 'Moana' remake has generated criticism for a lack of originality. (Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Few genres of film have been as much of a gamble for Disney as the live-action remakes of its classic cartoons. Last year alone, Lilo & Stitch grossed $1 billion and became almost as beloved as the animated original while Snow White lost an estimated $170 million and cast a dark spell on the studio due to a slew of negative coverage. The latest addition to Disney’s stable is coming for Snow White’s crown as the criticism of it is so harsh that it raises the question of whether it would have been better to make the movie with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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The movie in question is Moana, starring newcomer Catherine Laga’aia as the eponymous Polynesian teenager who joins demigod Maui, played by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, on a seafaring adventure to restore prosperity to her people. Johnson voiced the character in the 2016 computer animated original but that’s far from the only similarity between the two films.
Although the movie debuts today it has already been panned by critics for its lack of originality. “Much of the film is shot-for-shot, line of dialogue-by-line of dialogue a veritable clone,” wroteDeadline. For the same reason, Digital Spy’sreview described it as “the most pointless Disney live-action remake yet” and The Wrap even highlighted this in its headline saying “It’s the Same Film, Disney Just Wants You to Pay for It Again”.
This cynicism was a common thread in the reviews with entertainment journalists noting that the remake was released soon after the original in order to squeeze yet more money out of the movie which had already spawned a successful sequel in 2024. “Any live-action remake from Disney’s canon does beggar the question of ‘why,’” wrote Deadline adding that “‘because it brings in money,’ is an answer as obvious as it is depressing.”
Perhaps the greatest irony is that Disney may be on track to lose money on Moana rather than make a profit on it.
Live-action adaptations were once easy box office hits but as they have become more common, studios have had to walk an increasingly fine line to stand a chance of success. On the one hand, the more they stray from the source material, the more they risk alienating fans of the originals. On the other, the closer they stick to the source material, the greater the risk that they will be accused of adding nothing new.
This is a post-pandemic phenomena as audiences are now used to streaming movies without paying for each film. It has made consumers much more picky about which movies to pay to watch at the theater. Although Disney’s live-action adaptations are aimed at children, parents of course are the ones who are buying the tickets so if they don’t like the look of a film, they won’t pay for a ticket, especially in this tough economic climate. It is a particular problem for Disney as its cute and cuddly cartoon characters generally don’t translate well into a live action setting.
The Little Mermaid was widely criticized for the eerie appearance of the creatures which inhabit its undersea world. “There’s something about these depictions that triggers an uneasy response,” wroteVox. “Maybe it’s the prolonged, lingering shots on their ‘smiling’ faces or that their tiny mouths are contorted in unnatural ways. It’s as though there’s almost something sinister hiding underneath the computerized animal skin – and that’s even before they start singing and dancing.”
Likewise, Johnson’s appearance in Moana has attracted widespread online criticism and ridicule with the largest wave of mockery centered on Maui’s long, curly hair. Observers have complained that the wig looks unnatural and cheap, magnified by the fact that despite Johnson’s muscular frame, he wears a plastic-looking body suit in the movie to try and match Maui’s oversized proportions. It doesn’t appear to be going down well.
A Wash Out At The Box Office?
Early estimates suggested that Moana would have a healthy $80 million to $105 million domestic opening but those forecasts have sunk in the wake of the excoriating assessment from critics who have given the film an average rating of just 38% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
According to Variety, tracking services now forecast that the movie will actually debut to between $60 million and $65 million giving it ticket sales that are barely above the original, which opened to $56 million. Moreover, it is only a fraction of Moana 2’s domestic haul, which was a massive $139.7 million over its first three days.
However, Variety’s report warns that some exhibitors believe Moana could generate as little as $40 million domestically on opening which would yield a worldwide gross of just $115 million as $75 million at most is expected from overseas markets. Studios retain around half of the box office takings so this would give Disney just $58 million from the movie’s opening when takings are usually around their peak.
Variety described that outcome as “catastrophic” given that Moana carries an estimated $250 million budget without including Disney’s hefty global marketing spend. It’s a salutary reminder that box office isn’t the be-all-and-end-all for investors. Last month Disney boasted that it had become the first Hollywood studio in 2026 to surpass $3 billion at the worldwide box office but that seems hollow if it ends up making a loss on a high-profile movie like Moana.
The higher the budget, the more moviegoers are needed for the picture to break even. Moana will need to make waves to attract them.
The evidence for this is in the graph below which is based on information from internet search giant Google. Its Google Trends service analyzes the popularity of top queries though the results don’t reveal the number of searches for a specific term. Instead, each point on the graph is relative to the others on a scale of zero to 100. A score of 50 means there were half as many searches for the term on that date than there were when it hit 100, which represents peak popularity. In contrast, a score of zero relates to the lowest number of search enquiries during the given time.
Google search traffic for 'Moana' over time.
Google Trends
Google processes more than five trillion inquiries annually giving it a 90% share of the market so the results are as comprehensive as can be. Crucially, Google Trends captures as many of them as possible as it is not case sensitive and shows worldwide search inquiries.
It is possible to narrow the search down to this year’s Moana movie but in order to get the clearest indication of the popularity of the franchise over time, the most logical term to use is simply ‘Moana’. The results show that despite the release of the live-action adaptation, there have been far fewer searches for Moana during July than in December 2016 and December 2024 soon after the first and second movies debuted. The former has a Google Trends score of 90 and the latter hit 100 whereas it currently stands at just 48.
Granted, it is only early in the month but the movie is released today so you would expect the searches to be surging. It still has time to turn the tide but it remains to be seen whether it will do it.
The Quarter Of A Billion Dollar Question
There could be good reason why audiences aren’t searching for Moana a great deal now: there is no call for the film. It’s not long since the animated original debuted and its live-action counterpart does nothing new. So what is the point in spending a quarter of a billion dollars on making it, especially when the end result has been repeatedly compared to an AI production?
The Daily Telegraphjoked that it felt like someone just typed the animated scenes into an AI video generator while Deadline wrote that it had “animation that is barely distinguishable from AI.” Mashableadded that “it evoked in me a similar reaction to AI slop, where I cringe at the unnerving blend of the familiar and the not-quite-right.”
All jokes aside, Disney could do a lot worse than use AI to make live action adaptations which don’t change the source material at all.
In short, Generative AI can be used to create content, such as text, images, audio or video, based on patterns it learns from massive amounts of existing data. It can produce photorealistic videos as their components are derived from existing footage and the program can also predict the next element in a sequence, like a word, a pixel or a sound.
With billions of online videos to draw from, Generative AI programs can create scenes showing anything in a matter of seconds. They aren’t rendering each frame in 3D in a sequence as traditional animators and visual effects artists do. Instead, the AI program forecasts what the frame will look like and all it requires is the user to enter a text prompt which describes what they are looking for. The more detailed and precise the prompt, the closer the result will be to the request.
It has led to a torrent of so-called AI slop – bizarre videos showing everything from Elvis Presley in Star Wars to Stephen Hawking winning WWE wrestling matches. Many of the clips are indistinguishable from reality even though they are entirely artificial. This is why it has cast a dark spell on the movie industry and its influence is only growing.
The Way Of The Future
Last year London-based production house Particle 6 unveiled a photorealistic AI actress called Tilly Norwood and just a few days ago announced the first film that the creation will appear in – a dramedy called Misaligned. Uniqueness isn’t the only reason for this sudden interest. All it takes is the push of a button to give the character a different hair color, skin color, eyes or accent. There’s no need for any makeup or training giving it tremendous versatility at a low cost.
There’s no doubt that it’s eerie but it seems to be the way of the future given the vast sums that are being invested in AI. For obvious reasons, many actors are up in arms with Mary Poppins star Emily Blunt saying “good Lord, we’re screwed” when she was shown a news report about Norwood. “That is really, really scary. Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection.”
In contrast, a number of directors have voiced support for AI as they can see benefits. “I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t become interested in this stuff as a filmmaker. It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be be better than CGI [Computer Generated Imagery],” saidJurassic World: Rebirth director Gareth Edwards recently. Peter Jackson added “I don’t dislike it at all. I mean, to me, it’s just a special effect.”
Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson has come out in support of using AI effects in film-making. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Some actors have expressed a sense of resignation towards AI. “AI is here. So to fight it is to fight a battle that we will lose,” said Demi Moore. “I do feel that there’s a place for it,” added Sandra Bullock. “It’s here. We have to observe it. We have to understand it. We have to lean into it. We have to use it in a really constructive and creative way, make it our friend.”
If actors and studios don’t do that, fans may do it anyway. As Matthew McConaughey recently explained, AI enables fans to digitally insert movie stars into personal events from the other side of the world without even asking.
In an attempt to get an AI platform onside, Disney announced a tie-up with OpenAI’s Sora video generation tool last year and although the partnership bit the dust when the platform closed earlier this year, the Mouse reportedly still wants to enter into a similar deal. Other studios have already signed AI deals of a different kind.
Michael Caine’s voice has been recreated using AI to narrate a new audiobook of The Odyssey to coincide with the release of the movie this month. Likewise, Netflix has recreated the voice of late legendary actor Gene Wilder for a Willy Wonka competition series. Appropriate permission was obtained in advance in both cases as it was for production of the movie As Deep as the Grave which features an AI performance from the late Val Kilmer. Film makers used footage, photos and voice recordings to help craft his performance.
Artificial Intelligence. Actual Savings
To give an indication of the effect that AI can have on the bottom line, consider that it took 800,000 machine hours for Disney’s Pixar division to create 1995’s Toy Story as it had 114,240 frames of animation. However, an AI video generator could create a computer animated movie with a similar length and visual standard in around 400 minutes on a high-end cloud server cluster. If the project was split across separate high-end GPU nodes for each minute of the movie, the entire film could be rendered in under ten minutes. However, that’s not the end of the story.
If you just hit ‘generate’ and walked away, the resulting film would face significant production issues. For example, one of the characters might start the movie dressed in a certain way but by the end it could have warped into a completely different appearance. Likewise, the layout of the rooms could change and because the AI would generate the video separately from the audio, the lips would need to be manually matched, frame by frame, to the pre-recorded voice tracks.
‘Pre-training’ the AI program can fix a number of these issues but in turn, this requires doing some of the work that the program is designed to avoid. For example, if a 3D wireframe animation skeleton with exact physics, depth maps and camera movements is fed into a pre-trained AI, the program can simply render the textures, lighting and photorealistic skin on top making the end result much more stable. However, this requires the wireframe skeletons, depth maps and camera movements to be created and planned before the AI can get to work.
Of course, by its very nature, AI is learning every second as more of these videos are created so the processing time and caliber of the output are continually improving.
Nevertheless, even pre-training the AI takes considerably less time than rendering each frame by scratch, as was the case with Toy Story, or filming from scratch as happened with Moana. Feeding the entire Moana computer animated movie into a video generator would give the program more than enough information, especially if it was instructed to ensure that the the end result was no different to the original. It would cost a fraction of the amount that Disney spent on its live-action adaptation and could end up looking better. And if it didn’t, all Disney would need to do is type in some prompts and run the program again.
Sure, it would be lazy but so is copying the original shot for shot. Not even all the animals in the live action version look realistic with Moana’s chicken companion Heihei looking clearly computer generated. Ironically, inserting an obviously computer generated character into a photorealistic setting is exactly the kind of thing you find in AI slop videos.
Ultimately, the AI version would stand a greater chance of making a profit, due to its dramatically lower cost, so there would be less risk of wasting stockholders’ funds. Fans can create the movie themselves in AI, so by not doing this, Disney is opening the door being shown up by independent creators. In other words, it’s a lose-lose.
It’s no secret that there are some things computers can do better than humans and converting animated footage into live action is one of AI’s strengths. Of course, using AI isn’t the only solution. An alternative is walking that fine line and deviating from the source material in ways which justify the switch to live action filming. If it can’t be justified then it raises the question about whether the live action version should go ahead at all which is precisely what some critics say should have been asked about Moana. %!s()
