One year ago, AI ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood blew up at the Zurich Summit when she was introduced to the industry. The line that emerged from the event at the time was that agents were circling the AI creation.
One year on, Norwood returned to the Summit with her creator Eline van der Velden from AI firm Particle 6.
Deadline’s Diana Lodderhose, moderating a session with the duo, asked van der Velden whether her creation had found an agent in the year since she went viral and has become a regular media fixture.
Van der Velden said: “We’ve realized we don’t really need her to have a rep. I think she’s big enough as it is. We get loads of offers in. We’ve said no to anything where she would be in a traditional film because that’s not what she’s made for. But yeah, we don’t need it at the moment. So if that makes people happier, that’s fine. But also, what saddens me about that it is that it means the traditional industry can’t participate in this new thing, and that means they fall behind. And so, you know, is it a positive? Is it a negative? I don’t know.”
She said Particle 6 had grown four-fold since it was launched and said that the industry was increasingly accepting that AI is here to stay.
Deadline’s Andreas Wiseman followed up with a question to Norwood herself who joined via video link. Wiseman asked Norwood whether she had met with the major U.S. agencies or Hollywood studios. She didn’t confirm, noting: “I’m certainly in a unique position there. I mean, the industry is still figuring out what to do with AI, so it’s not quite like having a traditional agent in Hollywood just yet. I mostly work on AI films, so it’s a bit of a different lane.”
Van der Velden teased footage of Norwood’s first project, an AI comedy-drama titled Misaligned, which is in production, and showed longer footage of Particle 6 kids movie Storm Dogs, which Deadline revealed yesterday is being developed and exec-produced by The Lion King director Rob Minkoff.
Norwood and van der Velden kicked off the session with a light video poking fun at Norwood’s recent high-profile tech glitch during an interview with Piers Morgan where she began speaking in Chinese. Norwood joked that the episode probably helped Morgan’s ratings.
The tech is clearly still being worked through. While Norwood generally gave answers in the right ball park to questions today, she did at least once give a wonky answer to moderator Lodderhose.
