“Divergent” producer opens an AI film studio intending to produce studio-caliber films for $500,000

Pouya Shahbazian, the producer of the Divergent franchise, founded Staircase Studios AI, an artificial intelligence-powered film, television, and gaming studio.

Staircase promotes ForwardMotion, its in-house AI workflow, which promises to create near-studio-caliber film releases for less than $500,000. The company released a teaser including the opening five minutes of Brett Stuart’s debut feature, The Woman With Red Hair, based on Michael Schatz’s 2016 Black List script. The company stated that it plans to make about 30 low-budget films over the next three to four years.

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The AI-powered movie features artwork and designs by Emmy-winning animator Alfred Gimeno (Kung Fu Panda) and original character designs by Teddy Newton, a former Pixar executive who worked on The Incredibles. Leander Vyvey, Angus Castle-Doughty, Geoffrey Breton, and Maya-Nika Bewley provide the voices of a real-life war resister in World War II Holland.

Kenneth Lerer, a co-founder of The Huffington Post and the managing director emeritus of the venture capital firm Lerer Hippeau, is a partner and major investor in Staircase Studios AI. Brett Stuart leads AI filmmaking, while Shahbazian takes over as CEO of the movie, TV, and game firm.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve packaged and sold 150 projects into the studio system, and I’ve seen far too much inefficiency to maintain the status quo. In a statement, Shahbazian, whose producer credits include Greg Berlanti’s Love Simon and Shawn Levy and Eric Heisserer’s Shadow & Bone, said, “Over the past year, I’ve dedicated myself to pairing ethical AI usage with our industry’s most underutilized assets—overlooked stories waiting to be produced from fantastic writers and directors.”

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The second movie, Every Living Creature, an animated adventure thriller based on a script written by J.R. Arellano (Flicka 2) and directed by Bernie Su (Artificial), is currently in pre-production at Staircase.