{"id":625835,"date":"2026-09-15T23:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T23:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625835\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T23:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T23:50:10","slug":"about-a-hero-ai-generated-werner-herzog-documentary-debuts-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625835\/","title":{"rendered":"‘About a Hero,’ AI Generated Werner Herzog Documentary, Debuts Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boy, that gravely, transfixing, German-lilted voice sounds familiar.<\/p>\n

In the official trailer for \u201cAbout a Hero<\/a>,\u201d Werner Herzog, or rather, an artificial version of the legendary auteur<\/a>, intones about a \u201cgreat mystery\u201d that must be solved. The project is the debut feature of Piotr Winiewicz, a Polish artist, and it has made headlines for its unusual origins. It was created from a story generated by KASPAR, an AI trained \u2014 with Herzog\u2019s permission \u2014 on the director\u2019s body of work. \u201cAbout a Hero\u201d was produced by Pressman Film. Utopia\u2019s Circle Collective acquired North American rights and will release the film theatrically this fall.<\/p>\n

\"Rooney<\/a> \"Bucking<\/a> <\/p>\n

Adapted by Winiewicz and screenwriter Anna Juul from material generated by KASPAR, the film begins after a factory worker named Dorem Clery dies under mysterious circumstances and a synthetic Herzog travels to a sleepy European town to investigate. \u201cPeople always look for a reason, because someone\u2019s death is a great mystery,\u201d the synthetic Herzog intones in the moody trailer. \u201cA great enigma.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film blends staged narrative with real-world interviews, while involving artists, philosophers, and scientists in what the filmmakers describe as a \u201cprovocative conversation about authorship, originality, consent and the limits of machine-made meaning.\u201d The trailer has a dreamy quality \u2014 a man undresses, a woman lets out a primal scream in a parked car, and there are glimpses of a blood-drenched crime scene.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview <\/a>with IndieWire at the Venice Film Festival, Herzog explained his involvement in the project and shared his thoughts on AI. \u201cI welcome AI to replace all the idiots who are into nothing but repeating, repeating, repeating until it\u2019s ad nauseam. When it\u2019s ad nauseam, please, please, please let AI step in and do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the synthetic Herzog, the film features Vicky Krieps (\u201cPhantom Thread\u201d), Stephen Fry (\u201cGosford Park\u201d), and Imme Beccard (\u201cAm Ende der Worte\u201d), and is produced by Sam Pressman and Max Loeb for Pressman Film, Tambo Film, Cineteam Hannover, Yo Productions, Engima, and Utopia.<\/p>\n

Pressman Film and Utopia will host screenings of \u201cAbout A Hero\u201d across North America, featuring Q&As with the KASPAR AI trained for the film. The first screening will take place in Toronto on Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. at the Paradise Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival, with future screenings planned in New York City and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 30, \u201cAbout a Hero\u201d will celebrate its New York premiere at Crown Hill Theatre in Brooklyn. The screening will be followed by a Q&A featuring Winiewicz and KASPAR. Tickets are currently available<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout A Hero\u201d opened the 2024 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam with additional festival appearances at CPH:DOX, Stiges Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and G\u00f6teborg Film Festival. The film was released by Arte across Europe.<\/p>\n

Pressman Film premiered Takashi Miike\u2019s \u201cBad Lieutenant: Tokyo\u201d at this year\u2019s TIFF, and Jelena Maksimovi\u0107\u2019s \u201cUntil the Day Ends\u201d in competition at the Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti strand. Current projects include Luca Guadagnino\u2019s forthcoming adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis\u2019 \u201cAmerican Psycho\u201d and Josephine Decker\u2019s 2026 Sundance premiere \u201cChasing Summer,\u201d starring Iliza Shlesinger, Lola Tung, and Megan Mullally.<\/p>\n

Watch the official \u201cAbout a Hero\u201d trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boy, that gravely, transfixing, German-lilted voice sounds familiar. In the official trailer for \u201cAbout a Hero,\u201d Werner Herzog,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[265750,93,61,60,270,2787],"class_list":["post-625835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-about-a-hero","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-werner-herzog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}