A cinema in London has cancelled the premiere of a film with an AI-generated script following a backlash on social media.
The Prince Charles Cinema, located in London’s West End, was due to host a screening of a new film called The Last Screenwriter on Sunday (June 16). However, the cinema later announced that the premiere would not go ahead.
In its statement on social media, the Prince Charles said: “The feedback we received over the last 24hrs once we advertised the film has highlighted the strong concern held by many of our audience on the use of AI in place of a writer which speaks to a wider issue within the industry.”
— Prince Charles Cinema (@ThePCCLondon) June 18, 2024
Directed by Peter Luisi and starring Nicholas Pople, The Last Screenwriter is a Swiss production that tells the story of “a celebrated screenwriter” who “finds his world shaken when he encounters a cutting edge AI scriptwriting system. He soon realises AI not only matches his skills but even surpasses him in empathy and understanding of human emotions”.
The screenplay for the film is credited to ChatGPT 4.0. The latest version of the OpenAI technology, GPT-4o, launched in May.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Luisi said that the premiere had been cancelled after it received 200 online complaints, but a private screening for the cast and crew would still go ahead in London.
I appreciate independent cinemas are struggling everywhere and it’s hard to say no to private hire income. Still, the decision not to screen a film “entirely written by AI” should come easy to a place like the Prince Charles. A shame. https://t.co/Xbx9Jt4ogC
— Rafa Sales Ross (@rafiews) June 17, 2024
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Prince Charles Cinema showing an AI film. I am not a fan.https://t.co/U4VFil0z6e
— Víctor González (@Exuc) June 21, 2024
Just to note that @ThePCCLondon has removed their tweet advertising the AI film, but it's still listed on their website.
I urge the Prince Charles Cinema to stay true to its ethos, & cancel this screening. The money being paid to the cinema to host this can't be worth it. https://t.co/qLl7zHsgPN
— Philip Bagnall (@CynicalFilm) June 17, 2024
Luisi went on to say that the intention of the film was to further raise concerns about the rise of use of AI scriptwriting, not promote it.
“I think people don’t know enough about the project. All they hear is ‘first film written entirely by AI’ and they immediately see the enemy, and their anger goes towards us. If screenwriters take the time to watch the movie and read about the process and why we did this film, I can’t imagine they’ll condemn us or me because I’m one of them. I want to do this as a contribution to the cause.”
During last year’s Hollywood writers’ strike, protection against the use of AI tools in the writing process was one of the key demands by the Writers Guild of America (WGA).