Welles estate slams Amazon’s AI resurrection of “Magnificent Ambersons”

Amazon plans to use AI to recreate 43 minutes of destroyed footage from Orson Welles’ 1942 film “The Magnificent Ambersons,” but the legendary director’s estate says they weren’t consulted about the project. The controversy highlights growing tensions between AI innovation and creative rights, particularly when it involves posthumous use of artists’ work without family consent.

What’s happening: Edward Saatchi, CEO of Showrunner AI (recently backed by Amazon), announced plans to resurrect the “lost” footage by shooting sequences with live actors and using AI to face-swap their likenesses with the original cast.
• The project aims to restore what Saatchi calls Welles’ “ruined masterpiece” by generating the final 43 minutes that were destroyed by studio RKO in the 1940s.
• Web developer-turned-VFX expert Tom Clive will helm the effects work, using technology similar to previous posthumous CGI additions like Peter Cushing in “Rogue One.”

The backstory: “The Magnificent Ambersons” represents one of cinema’s greatest tragedies, with RKO studio removing nearly an hour of footage and changing Welles’ original ending.
• The studio burned the raw footage they had removed, leaving Welles’ vision permanently altered and his heart broken.
• “They destroyed ‘Ambersons,’ and it destroyed me,” Welles famously lamented about the studio’s interference.
• While rumors suggest a copy exists somewhere in Brazil, Showrunner AI doesn’t appear to have procured it.

What the estate is saying: The Welles family expressed disappointment at not being informed about the project, despite their previous collaboration with AI technology.
• “This attempt to generate publicity on the back of Welles’ creative genius is disappointing, especially as we weren’t even given the courtesy of a heads up,” the estate told Variety through a spokesperson.
• “While AI is inevitable, it still cannot replace the creative instincts resident in the human mind, which means this effort to make ‘Ambersons’ whole will be a purely mechanical exercise without any of the uniquely innovative thinking or a creative force like Welles.”

The bigger picture: The Welles estate isn’t anti-AI, having previously partnered with Storyrabbit to create a voice model using the director’s famous baritone for voiceover work.
• This makes Amazon’s failure to consult the family particularly problematic, suggesting a pattern of tech companies proceeding with AI resurrections without proper consent.
• The incident adds to a growing list of controversial celebrity AI recreations, from unauthorized George Carlin comedy specials to various posthumous digital appearances.