AI slop version of 'The Odyssey' announced prior to release of Christopher Nolan's epic blockbuster

Just days before Christopher Nolan’s star-studded and much-anticipated epic ‘The Odyssey’ hits theatres worldwide, an artificial intelligence startup has announced it has generated an AI version of Homer's ancient Greek epic poem... And no one is in the slightest bit impressed. Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, The Odyssey, comes out on Friday, and it seems that this year’s biggest blockbuster (so far) has some wannabe competition. A new AI-generated adaptation of the classic Homeric poem is hitting screens soon, prompting the questions: “What fresh AI slop hell is this?” and “Surely we’re better than this?” Odysseus: The Fall is an AI stunt by content generator Ash Koosha, backed by London-headquartered Fountain O, self-proclaimed as “the leading AI movie studio.” If the name of the “director” sounds familiar, it’s because Koosha also generated a docudrama titled Dreams Of Violets. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month and raised questions regarding the ethics of AI, as the 75-minute film dramatizes the plight of Iranian civilians weeks before the US and Israel attacked the country. A vital human story told without any real humanity... Jane Rosenthal, who cofounded Tribeca, defended the film’s inclusion on the festival line-up, stating that it was “a powerful example of how emerging technologies like AI can be used not simply as tools of innovation, but as vehicles for deeply human storytelling.” Now, in what seems to be a shameless and cynical attempt to piggy-back the Nolan buzz, Koosha has delivered his 135-minute AI video file, which he has described as "one man's collaboration with AI." “We very much hope that Christopher Nolan’s film, The Odyssey, is a raging success at the box office, and in some way that our version of the journey of Odysseus might further that success by bringing to theaters those who might not otherwise come out to see the film, simply because they are curious to see the ultimate in human creation and compare it to one man’s collaboration with AI,” Koosha stated. In his statement, he went on to argue that storytellers should not feel threatened by AI tools. “It’s a threat to nothing except distance, the distance between a person with a story and the means to tell it. More films will be made this way; that seems certain to me, the way it was certain once that anyone would be able to shoot on the camera in their pocket. What has to survive the change is the only thing that ever mattered: the story, and the reason for telling it. A tool has never made a film worth watching. A person with something urgent to say has made every one of them, and that won’t change, whatever they’re holding when they say it.” As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Odysseus: The Fall only cost Koosha a mid-five-figure sum, as opposed to the reported $250 million budgeted Nolan film. Film lovers, fans of human-made art, and social media users aren’t impressed and have called out the timing of Fountain O’s announcement. “This isn’t art, this is rancid slop,” wrote one X user, while another simply commented: “AI parasite”. Check out some more reactions below: Based on the trailer, viewers can get excited about ridiculously stilted dialogue, a distinct lack of emotion, uncanny valley faces that seem to change from one scene to the next, laughably poor renditions of horses, one character who is clearly a knock-off AI theft of Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, and bleeding ships. Because ships bleed, apparently. We recommend you don’t waste your time, but here’s the trailer in case you’re wondering what the film industry is currently up against: Fountain O are planning to pay-release the knock-off Odyssey on their website this summer. Again, stellar timing. Speaking of timing, Christopher Nolan recently shared his thoughts on AI and the future of cinema. As we reported earlier this week, the Oscar-winning director said that he is confident that younger generations will continue to reject “AI slop” and maintain a healthy appreciation for practical effects. Nolan said he has noticed a “rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology” among younger filmmakers, adding that his four children have an “immediate and harsh” reaction to AI. “Their judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh. They see it for what it is very quickly – and it’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well. And while that doesn’t mean that every aspect of the technology is useless or meaningless, in filmmaking it’s hitting at exactly the wrong time.” He argued that “after years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling.” The Odyssey recounts Odysseus’ perilous quest to return home after the Trojan war. The epic is considered a cornerstone of Western literature and includes some of Ancient Greek mythology’s most famous stories, including the Sirens, the Trojan horse, and the battle with the Cyclops. The film stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton and Lupita Nyong’o, and has been the subject of several controversies prior to its release. Elon Musk and other rightwing figures have bellyached over the casting of Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, a mythological figure considered the most beautiful woman in the world. There has also been online backlash over the use of modern English dialogue – something which Nolan reacted to by saying: “These conversations that happen before people see the film - they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.” The Odyssey is out on Friday 17 July. Stay tuned to Euronews Culture for our full review.