When Rogue One director Gareth Edwards and his co-writer Chris Weitz started work on The Creator in 2020, they had little idea that AI would be such a talking point as their movie prepared to land in 2023.
Certainly, AI has featured in numerous sci-fi films and shows before, going back decades, but this year has seen an explosion in the public consciousness, with ChatGPT now a water-cooler conversation. "It was a total fluke," says Edwards in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which is out on newsstands on Thursday, July 20.
"When we started, the AI in the movie was really an allegory for people who are different. But obviously I love science fiction, and I think the best science fiction has meat on the bone. It’ll explore ideas. It’s usually able to explore things that other genres can’t go to in quite the same extreme. And so as soon as you start to have anything AI in your storyline, the questions that come up really quickly are super fascinating: are they real? How would you ever know? Does it matter? What happens if you want to turn them off? Do they want to be turned off?"
The director, also known for his work on Godzilla and Monsters, adds, "The movie started as far-off philosophical questions that I might not live to see happen in my lifetime, and then suddenly, as we were filming, those news stories broke about people that are working with AI and feeling that they might be conscious, and things like this."
While Edwards won't be drawn on his personal feelings towards AI, he continues, "Being a science-fiction fan, you wonder if you’ll ever live to see humans on Mars, or will we ever discover alien life? Well, I didn’t think we would have completely convincing AI that you could interact with, like HAL in 2001. So [regarding The Creator], what started out as a science-fiction movie now feels more like a documentary."
The Creator is set in a future where war is raging between humans and artificial intelligence. Joshua, an ex-special forces agent, is recruited to hunt down the Creator, who is responsible for creating the advanced AI. The movie starring John David Washington, Gemma Chan, and Ken Watanabe opens in cinemas on September 29.
This is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features the movie on the cover. The magazine hits shelves this Thursday, July 20. Check out the covers below:
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