How AI is becoming Hollywood’s newest star, changing work on and off camera
fortune.com Oct 1, 2026

How AI is becoming Hollywood’s newest star, changing work on and off camera

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

When “Hell Grind” premiered at Cannes, it drew attention not for star power but for being fully generated by artificial intelligence. The 95‑minute action film was produced by Higgsfield AI, a startup of 15 people, in under three weeks on a $500,000 budget, with 80 % of costs allocated to compute power. All actors, visuals and effects were AI‑created, though the company’s co‑founder Mahi De Silva stresses that directors, writers and designers will remain essential. Higgsfield AI’s platform, Cinema Studio, integrates 33 AI models such as OpenAI’s ImageGPT and Google’s Nano Banana. The startup raised $400 million in a Series B round, valuing it at $5.4 billion, and is testing licensed human likenesses for future projects.

💡 Why It Matters

  • · AI‑driven production could slash traditional filmmaking costs while reshaping creative labor dynamics.