Hollywood Hates AI in Public—and Monetizes It in Private
... still wondering if robots have celluloid dreams.
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Edited by Elizabeth Kealoha. Pod + Images by Ant Neely.
This Week Inside Machine Cinema…
The one-billion dollar OpenAI deal, Netflix and Warner Bros. and YouTube’s unstoppable momentum frame a week that exposed how AI media really works. Inside: voice consistency hacks, the end of AI trailer farms, new tools fixing AI faces, sobering IP math, and fresh data on who’s actually winning in the AI economy.
Basecamp Highlights From the Last Two Weeks…
Disney Drops $1B on OpenAI (Napster’s Ghost Approves)
The Mouse made its move. Disney’s billion-dollar bet on OpenAI puts 200 animated characters into Sora, and the community had thoughts. The play? Get direct customer data, let OpenAI handle moderation, and maybe—just maybe—turn UGC into a Disney+ content pipeline. Oh, and hours later Disney sent a cease-and-desist to Google. Coincidence? The chat isn’t buying it.
“Napster walked so generative models could run.”
Variety: Disney OpenAI Deal | Disney's Google Cease-Desist
Netflix Wants Warner Bros (YouTube Wins Either Way)
Netflix buying the #3 streamer? Wild. The community broke down why this matters beyond the headlines: theaters closing tanks local economies (popcorn margins are 80%, people!), Netflix optimizes for “background watching,” and no matter who wins the streaming wars, YouTube keeps eating everyone’s lunch.
“The metrics that they look at aren’t actually human.”
Variety: Movie Theaters Article
The Seedance Voice Hack (Gemini Does the Heavy Lifting)
Seedance 1.5 Pro is cooking, but voice consistency isn’t baked in—so the community figured out a workaround. Describe the voice in detail right in your prompt. One member’s formula: “(A fast-paced, nasal baritone with a soft, educated New York accent).” The trick? Let Gemini write those descriptions for you.
“Just explain the voice and the accent. I asked Gemini to give me a short sentence for it.”
YouTube Nukes AI Trailer Farms (Studios Were Already Cashing In)
Screen Culture and KH Studio are gone—2M+ subs, a billion views, poof. But here’s the kicker: WBD and Sony weren’t blocking these fake trailers. They were quietly claiming the ad revenue. One member’s confession? They accidentally used fake trailers as b-roll. The line between real and AI is officially blurry.
“I’ve fallen for those, too, and even cut them in as b-roll for promos by accident.”
Deadline: YouTube Terminates Channels
Topaz Drops Starlight Precise 2 (Faces Finally Get Fixed?)
AI video’s uncanny valley problem just got a new challenger. Topaz Labs announced Starlight Precise 2, targeting the face and skin texture weirdness that plagues AI-generated humans. One member who spent 5 hours stress-testing Astra is already excited—and apparently helped shape features headed our way.
“We got a few more features coming that have your fingerprints all over it.”
Starlight Precise 2 Announcement
Native Foreign’s 2025 Wrapped (You’re Probably In It)
Native Foreign dropped their year-end recap, and if you’ve been active in this community, there’s a good chance you’re part of the story. The AI-first studio called out Machine Cinema collabs throughout—proof that the group chat can actually turn into real work.
“MANY of you have collaborated with us this year, and helped us make some incredible work that has reached many across the globe.”
Sony Buys Peanuts (The Math Is Brutal)
Sony grabbed 41% of the Peanuts brand, and someone in the chat did the math. The verdict? That slice is worth about what all of Warner Bros Discovery is under Zaslav. Also: there’s literally a Snoopy Museum in Tokyo, so the Japan synergies write themselves.
“41% of Peanuts is worth close to 100% of a Zaslav. You can’t tell me that’s not enlightening.”
Question of the Week…
If studios are already monetizing AI content behind the scenes, how long can they keep pretending they’re against it?
We❤️ Robots Highlights From the Last Two Weeks…
Actually, AI Jobs Are Booming (Vanguard Receipts Inside)
The “AI is killing jobs” narrative took a hit this week. Vanguard’s actual data shows the ~100 occupations most exposed to AI are outperforming the market in job growth and wages. The catch everyone noticed? Entry-level roles are still getting squeezed, even as senior positions thrive.
“Entry level jobs are getting harder and harder these days.”
CNN: AI Jobs Economy | Vanguard Report PDF
RIP Roomba (35 Years, Gone)
iRobot filed for bankruptcy. The company that made robot vacuums a thing—35 years of pioneering consumer robotics—is done. The chat’s reaction was pure grief, plus a sliver of hope that someone swoops in for the save.
“Could have been saved.”
Hollywood Launches CCAI (Four Pillars, TBD Results)
The Hollywood Creators Coalition on AI is officially a thing. Four pillars: compensation for training data, job protection plans, deepfake guardrails, and “safeguarding humanity in creative.” One member’s entire reaction? “mh.” (It was a butt dial, but still.)
“mh”
“mh?”
“sorry—butt dial.”
THR: Hollywood Creators Coalition
Real Creative “Pick of the Week”
Each week the Machine Cinema members + the Real Creative team obsess over social feeds in search of the world’s best AI creative video, gaming, and music projects.
You can find this and over 300 AI filmmakers and their projects over at realcreative.ai which features some familiar faces from the Machine Cinema community.
About this project: This week’s pick of the week comes from Pablo Prompt. The video features broken down robots from some animated classics, and it’s seamless from start to finish. Pablo generated high-detail starting and ending frames using Nano Banana Pro, designing frames so the end of one shot naturally became the start of the next. Those image pairs were then animated into realistic clips using Kling 2.5 Turbo, stitched together in a video editor, and enhanced with sound effects for continuity and realism. You can see more on Pablo’s instagram channel where he had a different Dragon Ball Z video recently get over 30M views in a day.
Events This Week…
Happy Holidays from Machine Cinema! We’ll be back next year with some amazing events!
🔗 Link Drops
🧪 Tools & Industry
Bio-inspired Robot Locomotion - New wheels: robot that can fly, roll, walk, and crawl
Google Disco Preview - Preview of Google’s new Disco tool
Google Gemini Ads 2026 - Google telling advertisers about Gemini ads coming in 2026
Kickboxing Robots - Kickboxing robot demonstration
Meta 3 AI Models - Meta reportedly working on three image and video generation models
Phenomenal AI T2V Playground - Text-to-video playground now live
VR/XR Immersive Tech - Virtual reality and extended reality developments
Zoom Enters AI - Zoom as unlikely AI player
🎥 Film & Art Projects
Gen Walk Paris - Machine Cinema community event in Paris
Niceaunties Art Store - AI artist selling their wares
Secret Level Kling Holiday Video - Holiday video from Secret Level & Kling team
📚 Reading & Thought Pieces
AI Hype Correction 2025 - MIT Tech Review on the great AI hype correction
Culture Crave Entertainment - Entertainment commentary
Hedge Fund WBD Cable Assets - Warner Bros Discovery cable asset developments
Oscars AI Films - AI films at Academy Awards
Polymarket Predictions - Prediction market activity
War, Religion, AI Discussion - Philosophical discussion invitation
WB Netflix Theory - Another theory on media consolidation
YouTube Positioned - YouTube market positioning
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