AI-generated Odysseus: The Fall released ahead of Nolan’s The Odyssey, Netflix admits generative AI used in 300 TV shows and films, PixVerse raises $439 million as AI video startup’s valuation tops $2 billion
Netflix admits generative AI used in 300 TV shows and films
Netflix has confirmed that generative AI was used in the production of around 300 films and television series in 2026, underscoring how rapidly the technology is becoming embedded in mainstream entertainment. The disclosure came in the company’s second-quarter shareholder letter, published on 16 July, which described generative AI workflows as “scaling quickly” and largely concentrated in post-production. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors the tools are enabling “higher-quality output more quickly and at a lower cost than traditional methods,” adding that some productions would otherwise have been forced to cut key shots and sequences.
Among the titles cited were the Indian sports thriller Glory, the Brazilian miniseries Brasil 70: A Saga do Tri, and the US docuseries The American Experiment. In these projects, AI was used to enhance crowd scenes, recreate historical battles, and generate establishing shots. For The American Experiment, Netflix said approximately 17 minutes of footage was created or augmented using generative AI, delivered at roughly half the cost and twice the speed of conventional visual effects. The company added that generative AI is now being used across the full production lifecycle, from concept and pre-visualization through to final delivery, while maintaining that the technology is intended to support creators rather than replace them.
PixVerse raises $439 million as AI video startup’s valuation tops $2 billion
Singapore-based AI video-generation startup PixVerse has raised an additional $439 million in a Series C extension, pushing its valuation above $2 billion and underscoring investor confidence in the fast-growing AI video sector. The new capital follows an earlier Series C close this year and brings the total raised in the round to $439 million.
Founded in 2023, PixVerse develops AI-powered video and “world model” technology designed to generate high-resolution clips and simulate realistic environments for consumer and enterprise customers. The company reports a large and rapidly expanding user base for its tools, which can produce video up to 4K with native audio. The latest funding will be used to accelerate research and product development, expand hiring across engineering and go-to-market teams, and deepen PixVerse’s global reach. With this round, the startup joins the top tier of AI video players competing with offerings from major tech firms, as demand for automated video generation continues to climb.
NO FAKES Act advances as Congress targets AI deepfakes
Congress is advancing the No Fakes Act, a bipartisan bill in Washington designed to curb AI deepfakes that copy a person’s voice and image without consent. The measure would create a federal right over digital replicas, allowing performers and ordinary people to sue producers and platforms that use or host unauthorized AI-generated likenesses. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by voice vote in June and would cover synthetic audio, video, and images during a person’s lifetime and for decades after death, with rights held by heirs. It carves out exceptions for news reporting, documentaries, biographies, and parody to protect legitimate speech while targeting AI impersonation used for fraud or exploitation.
SAG-AFTRA, major record labels, and large media and tech companies have lined up behind the proposal as deepfakes spread through music, film, and politics, and state publicity laws leave gaps. Supporters say a national standard is now needed to give performers, creators, and voters clearer tools to force removal of abusive replicas and seek damages when AI cloning crosses legal lines.
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Amazon drops AI series Punky Duck after death threats to director Jorge R Gutierrez
Amazon MGM Studios has pulled the AI-animated series Punky Duck from its GenAI Creators Fund after director Jorge R. Gutiérrez quit the project following a wave of online death threats and doxxing. Gutiérrez, known for The Book of Life and Maya and the Three, had signed on to lead one of three AI-assisted shows built on Amazon’s Project Nara platform, saying he wanted artists to steer the technology rather than be replaced by it. Within hours of the announcement, animators and fans resurfaced past comments in which he warned that AI would flood the market with low-quality work and undermine jobs, accusing him of hypocrisy for joining an Amazon AI program. Gutiérrez says threats against his family and the posting of personal details online pushed him to cancel Punky Duck less than two days after the deal went public, calling AI in animation a “black-and-white” issue inside the community. Amazon MGM has kept its remaining GenAI series in development, while Gutiérrez has apologized and withdrawn from the fund.
Lost Canon puts AI native shorts on Raindance program
Ten filmmakers have premiered AI-native short films at the Raindance Film Festival in London as part of Lost Canon, a new series produced by Moonmax and built entirely inside CapCut Video Studio. The project unites Raindance, Moonmax, and CapCut to commission ten shorts that imagine stories, artifacts, places, and cultural histories that never existed. Each film was written, developed, and finished within CapCut Video Studio, a canvas-style AI production workspace that covers ideation, storyboarding, scene generation, editing, and final export in a single environment.
Daniel Gordon, head of AI at Raindance and chief executive of Moonmax, says Lost Canon is designed to show how AI tools can bring otherwise impossible or prohibitively expensive ideas to the screen for independent creators. CapCut partnerships lead Lewis Graham calls the series a test case for AI-native filmmaking, using consumer tools to build new worlds and blur the boundaries between fiction and history.
AI-generated Odysseus The Fall released ahead of Nolan’s The Odyssey
AI film studio Fountain Zero will release Odysseus: The Fall, a 135-minute, AI-generated adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey from Dreams of Violets director Ash Koosha, for rental and purchase on its website later this summer. Koosha developed the feature over three months using the Kling video generator and in-house tools to write, direct, and edit the film on a mid–five-figure budget. The project is positioned as a low-cost counterpoint to Christopher Nolan’s reported $250 million live-action The Odyssey.
According to Fountain Zero, Odysseus: The Fall follows “the fractured memories of a drowning man in his final minutes.” Koosha cast his own likeness as the Greek hero alongside a dozen human likenesses contributed by collaborators. The trailer has already sparked early online backlash, with commentators and tech outlets dismissing the project as “AI slop” and questioning whether audiences will sit through a feature-length film built entirely from generative tools. Fountain Zero executive chairman Tom Rogers says the release is aimed at viewers interested in AI rather than theatrical spectacle, and will serve as a reference point for comparing the current ceiling of AI filmmaking against Nolan’s big-budget epic.
Promise AI taps Sharknado and Doctor Who veterans for new AI film slate
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Los Angeles startup is recruiting writers and creators with credits on Sharknado and Doctor Who for a slate of AI-driven films, in one of the clearest signs yet that the technology is moving deeper into mainstream screen production.
Promise AI says the projects are being developed with industry talent rather than built as fully synthetic experiments, positioning the company as a bridge between traditional filmmaking and generative tools. The company has not publicly detailed every title, but the move suggests it is aiming to use familiar genre names and established writers to make AI production less abstract for studios, investors, and audiences. By attaching recognizable credits from cult television and disaster-movie corners of the industry, Promise AI is trying to give the category more credibility at a time when Hollywood remains divided over the role of AI in writing, performance, and visual effects. The strategy also reflects a wider shift in entertainment tech, where startups are increasingly pitching AI as a practical production layer rather than a replacement for human crews. Whether that makes the films easier to sell or simply easier to criticize remains an open question, but Promise AI is betting that familiar names will help normalize a format that many in Hollywood still view with caution.
Digital Auschwitz film set used in feature for first time
A German feature film has become the first to use the Auschwitz Memorial’s new digital replica of the former concentration camp, marking a departure from decades of strict rules that had largely barred fiction productions at the site. The film, Block 10, a historical drama about Nazi-era medical experiments on women in the camp, incorporates the memorial’s certified 3D model of Auschwitz I buildings and exteriors into its visual effects. The digital set was created under the Picture from Auschwitz initiative, which uses high-precision 3D scanning to produce a brick-by-brick virtual location that filmmakers can license instead of shooting on site.
The project aims to better preserve the physical camp while giving directors a credible, historically accurate resource for storytelling as the survivor generation dwindles and Holocaust denial rises. Block 10 is the first fiction feature to integrate the model, following earlier use mainly in documentaries and other non-fiction projects.
