Aronofsky Defends 35-Film AI Project as Cannes Debuts Goodnight Lamby

4 articles · Updated · Deadline · May 16

Darren Aronofsky said he is pressing ahead with “On This Day… 1776,” a planned 30-35 short-film AI series, even after its first January release was widely panned.
At Cannes’ AI for Talent Summit, he said the work was always an experiment and argued the April 29 installment already shows major gains in models, Primordial Soup’s production pipeline and artist execution.
Primordial Soup also makes its Cannes Official Selection debut Tuesday with “Goodnight Lamby,” a Cannes Classics short made with Google DeepMind and voiced by Paul Rudd and Chris Rock.
Aronofsky said the three-film DeepMind collaboration—including Tribeca title “Ancestra” and documentary “Love Rendered” in post-production—uses AI to enable projects that otherwise would not be made, not to replace crews or directors.
He framed image-generation AI as the next filmmaking tool after sound, portable cameras and VFX, while insisting big-screen cinema and human storytelling will remain central.

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