China's AI short dramas are cheap to make, but one broker's math says few of them pay

Iron Man's cinematographer says AI could replace Marvel's effects, but not its stars

Matthew Libatique predicts big studios will use AI to cut visual effects costs but keep real actors. It is a prediction, not inside knowledge, and his test with Darren Aronofsky has not happened yet.

Matthew Libatique, the cinematographer behind Iron Man, Black Swan and A Star Is Born, told Variety on Friday that AI "won't replace cinema." Then he added: "What it could replace is Marvel."

His reasoning was money. Studios that make their movies "for so much money," he said, will use AI in visual effects "to curb some of their costs." The faces are another matter. "I don't think there's going to be a Tilly Norwood Batwoman or Black Widow," he said, naming the AI performer.

This is a prediction rather than inside knowledge. He last shot for Marvel Studios on Iron Man 2 in 2010. The split already exists on paper, though. Disney's Sora deal with OpenAI licenses more than 200 characters for AI video and leaves out talent likenesses and voices.

He has also already shot an AI film. Libatique was director of photography on Goodnight Lamby, a short from Darren Aronofsky's AI studio Primordial Soup made partly with Google's Veo 3, which played Cannes Classics in May. The person directing the model asked him for real light, because placing a lamp in the set was easier than talking the machine into it.

Next comes a test with Aronofsky before their next film, and it has not happened yet. "We're doing a test soon," Libatique said of the plan. He thinks the more you give the system, the better. Aronofsky "wants to see how little you can do." No title, tools or date are public.

Our take: as crews shrink, the people who can both light a set and direct a model have the strongest claim on the work that is left.

Source: Variety interview at Evolution Mallorca, Oct 30, 2026.

Read the full article: thegenerated.com/stories/matthew-libatique-ai-marvel-aronofsky-20261102

Utopai hires Disney's Hans Ku to run PAI, the AI engine it rents to filmmakers

Hans Ku, Disney's former vice president of AI and engineering, is now Utopai's chief product officer. The release credits him on Disney's Sora deal, which never closed, and PAI's model has no public developer access.

Hans Ku, until now Disney's vice president of AI and engineering, is Utopai Studios' new chief product officer. He reports to CEO Cecilia Shen and runs product, engineering, research and business development, including PAI, the platform Utopai uses on its own films and rents to everyone else.

That makes this a story about a tool you can pay for, and whether the people renting it get what the house productions get.

The release leans on one credential: a leadership role in Disney's Sora deal. That deal, announced Dec 11, 2025, never closed. OpenAI said on Mar 24 it was shutting Sora down, and Axios reported no money changed hands. Variety's version is softer: he helped connect the two teams. Disney has not commented on his role.

PAI opened to the public on Mar 5. Utopai X, the model inside it, sits second on Artificial Analysis's video leaderboard, and Utopai's own blog says it builds on MiniMax H3. It has no public developer access, so the only way to use it is inside PAI. The $11 million in yearly revenue is Utopai's own claim, and the reported $60 million raise at a $1 billion valuation comes from an anonymous source.

Our take: a studio that rents its engine to independents can be a real ally, but only if renters get the same tools the house productions get. Ku says creative decisions stay with filmmakers. Now he has to show it in the product.

Source: Utopai release, Nov 2, 2026; Artificial Analysis, Nov 3, 2026.

Read the full article: thegenerated.com/stories/utopai-hans-ku-chief-product-officer-disney-20261103