I just spent two days at Amazon/MGM Studios in Culver City at AI on the Lot, the biggest AI filmmaking conference in the world, and I wrote up everything for this week's newsletter. It's a long one, on purpose. Paul Schrader got up and explained how he's writing with ChatGPT now. (Spielberg, in the same week, said there's no substitute for the soul about AI). Studios that wouldn't say "AI" out loud two years ago were on the main stage with their names on the work. And the films aren't hypothetical anymore; they're shipping, and a few are selling. I covered every session I could get to and owned up to the ones I couldn't, since I still can't be in two places at once. Read the full thing here. If you read it, I'd love your take below. What surprised you? What are you going to try?

You might want to check in with Skool. I just got an email with your latest post, but it's coming from the wrong group and when I click on the links, it takes me to that other group. See screenshot of the email.

I’d love to hear from everyone here. As this group continues to grow, I want to make sure we’re building something that is actually useful, practical, and worth your time. So here’s the question: What would you most like to get out of this community? I want your top 3. But Skool only lets you vote once. So please add a comment with your 2nd & 3rd choices. If something's missing, tell me. This community is yours as much as it's mine. I'd rather build what you'll actually use than guess. 😉 Thanks, Larry

I've been tracking something that dropped yesterday and I want to get your take on it. Canal+ — the French company behind Studiocanal, Paddington, Back to Black — just announced formal multi-year partnerships with both Google AND OpenAI in the same breath as their annual earnings call. Not a pilot. Not an experiment. Infrastructure. The specific use case they highlighted: Google's Veo3 to recreate historical moments from a single archival photo. That's not vague AI promise language. That's a direct hit on documentary production budgets, historical drama reshoots, and the entire stock footage licensing industry. And they're not alone. Disney already invested $1B in OpenAI and handed Frozen and Star Wars characters to Sora. Banijay just merged with All3Media and is talking up AI capabilities. Now Canal+. When both ends of the market — American blockbuster IP and European prestige cinema — formalize AI partnerships within months of each other, the middle has nowhere to hide. Here's the thing though — and this is what people are missing in all the doom takes: Canal+ simultaneously announced a new deal with Sky to develop English-language drama. At least two projects a year for three years. They're deploying AI AND commissioning more human-driven storytelling at the same time. AI doesn't kill demand for content. It changes the cost structure of producing it. The studios that use AI to make more will win. The ones that only use it to spend less will just be cheaper versions of what they already were. I've been in this industry through every major technology transition. This one feels different in speed. Not in kind. The question on the table for all of us right now: are you positioning yourself as someone who knows how to direct the machines? Or are you waiting to see how this shakes out? Curious what you're seeing from where you sit. Drop it below. 👇

A digital “Tillyverse” for AI actors is coming. The WGA West canceled its awards ceremony over a staff strike. Luma dropped Ray 3.14 and put $1M on the table at Cannes. And fresh data from 120,000+ AI-generated videos shows just how mainstream this has become. What’s fascinating isn’t just the tech getting better (it is). It’s that acceleration and resistance are happening at the same time. On one side: synthetic talent ecosystems, production-ready video engines, vertical video dominance, global adoption. On the other: labor unrest, anti-AI film festivals backed by Oscar winners, and guild tensions playing out in public. We’re not watching a trend. We’re watching the industry reorganize itself. I break all of this down in today’s AIography—including what actually matters for filmmakers trying to build careers right now (not just argue on Twitter). If you’re not subscribed yet, it’s free and takes about 7 minutes to read. 👉 Click HERE to subscribe. And as always—I'm curious: Are we heading toward two parallel Hollywoods? Or does this all eventually merge? Let’s discuss.