AI film studios are emerging in Hollywood with tools that can generate backgrounds, special effects and synthetic performers alongside human actors. Promise, a new studio in Culver City, is using the technology on the AI-enabled horror film Touch the Grass, which has a budget in the low millions of dollars.
The approach could reduce the need for traditional sound stages and major studio financing. Promise co-founder George Strompolos estimates that hybrid films combining human performers with AI could cost 20% to 50% less than conventional productions, while Obsidian executive producer D Ryan Reeb estimates savings of 30% to 40% for the studio’s projects.
What Promise is testing on set
During an early shoot for Touch the Grass, actor Tori Thomas performed a chase scene in a modest office space hung with white sheets. A camera captured her movement while an AI model generated a field of swaying grass around her in real time.
The production team could replace that field with an underground cavern and view the completed actor-and-background scene on a handheld monitor. The shoot used Seedance 2.5, a Chinese AI model released in August 2026, as well as US-made models elsewhere in the studio’s work.
Why studios see a financial opportunity
Promise is one of a growing number of AI-focused film studios operating in Hollywood. The source material identifies support from Google, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and Disney, and says the model may let smaller creative companies work without the scale of traditional studio facilities and financing.
Netflix said in August 2026 that it had used AI in 300 of its 1,000 titles that year. Ron Howard is also working with Obsidian, an AI studio operating from Imagine’s Beverly Hills headquarters, on The Code, an animated documentary feature based on drawings made by US prisoners of war in Vietnam.
The dispute over jobs, consent and creative control
The expansion has met resistance from directors, performers and writers. Christopher Nolan has criticised the speed of generative technology’s advance and public suspicion of it, while Guillermo del Toro has also criticised generative technology. Democratic congresswoman Laura Friedman, who represents Hollywood’s actors, writers and directors, warned that the industry should not wait until tens of thousands of American workers are displaced.
Backlash has also followed the AI resurrection of the late actor Val Kilmer and the emergence of the AI actor Tilly Norwood. Actor Emily Blunt called the development “really, really scary” and said it risked taking away human connection. The source material does not describe a settled industry-wide rule governing these uses.
What independent filmmakers see next
AI-native filmmaker Kavan “the Kid” Cardoza says the technology can help creators bypass studio formulas. His Chronicles of Bone fantasy series, launched online in autumn 2025, has reached 28 million YouTube views, according to the source material, and led to a deal with the Magnific AI platform.
Cardoza and other supporters argue that lower production costs could encourage more distinctive voices and mid-budget films. Brad Pitt said AI, if used as a tool, could help make films with budgets of $40 million to $90 million. At the same time, producer and AI adviser Joanna Popper warned that the financial gains could become concentrated among five technology companies.
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