The feud between one of the world’s greatest living artists — Martin Scorsese — and a major Hollywood guild over his involvement in an AI startup seems to be escalating.
While Scorsese isn’t the only big name to get on the AI hype train — Darren Aronofsky, Ben Affleck, James Cameron and Steven Soderbergh all have their hands in the new technology in one way or another — Scorsese’s embrace of AI seems to have cut the deepest.
Earlier this month, Scorsese joined AI firm Black Forest Labs as an advisor. When his new role was announced, the company released a promo video in which the 83-year-old uses Black Forest’s FLUX generative-AI model to help storyboard a scene.
“There’s always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew,” Scorsese tells Black Forest CEO Robin Rombach during a storyboarding session at his New York office.
Scorsese dictates a particular scene he wants to see (which looks like an old medieval-esque village) before it’s created almost instantaneously. Scorsese then mentions how this tool puts more power in the hands of the filmmakers themselves. “You do have that control of making the film rather than doing it solely through verbal language,” he says.
The Art Director’s Guild, which represents nearly 3,000 below-the-line workers including storyboard artists, production designers and illustrators, was incensed and promptly put out a statement accusing the “Goodfellas” director of “turning his back on the human artists.”
“He specifically mentioned storyboard artists, he didn’t just say jobs in general or tasks in general,” a source close to the guild told Page Six Hollywood. The guild’s illustrators, who are “on the front line of folks who will be replaced first” by AI, were also up in arms, the source continued.
Shortly after the ADG’s statement, Scorsese’s team reached out to the guild, per two sources with the knowledge of the discussions, to make peace.
During a phone meeting with the guild’s president, Dina Lipton, Scorsese’s reps attempted to assuage concerns by saying how the director has always had a great relationship with below-the-line workers. But attempts to set up a call with their AI committee have since gone cold.
Some of Scorsese’s most timeless films, including “Hugo” and “The Aviator,” have been honored with multiple below-the-line Oscars, and the fear among guild members is that if this tech becomes totally normalized among titans like Scorsese, it sets an extremely worrisome precedent.
