Google DeepMind is investing $75 million into A24. The indie studio that built its brand on being film maker forward known for films like Ex-Machina, The Back Room and Mid-Summer A24’s venture with Deep Mind is a new 20 person division called A24 Labs.
Led by former Adobe executive Scott Bilski, the goal is to weave AI into the very fabric of how movies are developed, shot, and finished. They’re doing this by using specialized tools, AI assisted storyboarding, smarter production planning, and faster editing.
There’s one crucial guardrail. Google is contractually barred from training its public AI models on A24’s existing film library. The back catalog is off limits, so the A24 aesthetic cannot just be scraped and cloned for everyone’s use.
Financially, the deal is also not exclusive, which means A24 is not locked to Google forever, and Google isn’t buying the studio. And this move fits into a much bigger shift. Netflix has acquired Inner Positive Ben Affleck startup for AIdriven lighting and shadow fixes in post.
Martin Scorsese is working with Black Forest Labs and its flux model to storyboard his next film. Landscape has signed a major deal with Runway AI so producers can previsualize entire films before they’re even green lit.
Disney explored a deep partnership of $1 billion with Open AI recently around Sora before those talks ultimately fell apart. For A24, this is a strategic move to shape the tools of the future rather than resisting them.
The irony of the studio behind Ex-Machina, a film about the dangers of AI partnering with Google is not lost on observers. On the A24 sub reddit, fans are cancelling subscriptions and warning that automating storyboards will wipe out entry-level artist jobs.
Even inside A24’s own roster, directors are divided. 20-year-old Backroom’s creator, the highest grossing film for A24, Kane Parson calls generative AI cultural and economic rot, while Ex-Machina director Alex Garland compares it to nuclear power.
