{"id":662147,"date":"2026-10-30T23:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T23:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662147\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T23:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T23:16:12","slug":"matthew-libatique-says-ai-might-replace-marvel-but-not-marvel-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662147\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Libatique Says AI ‘Might Replace Marvel’ but Not Marvel Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tStepping outside the airport in Mallorca, three-time Oscar-nominee cinematographer Matthew Libatique<\/a> was taken aback by the light. He briefly delayed greetings so he could take it all in: the way the autumnal sun kissed baby-pink buildings and glistened against the island\u2019s shores before setting behind the mountains. <\/p>\n

\n\tThis is an experience the veteran DP shared while speaking at Evolution Mallorca<\/a>, the Spanish island\u2019s leading film festival, where he is this year\u2019s recipient of the Cinematography Icon Award.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen taking into consideration how passionate Libatique seems to be about the natural, how is he dealing with the fast-paced changes brought by artificial intelligence? The matter seems even more pertinent to the cinematographer, whose longest creative collaborator is \u201cBlack Swan\u201d director Darren Aronofsky<\/a>. The \u201cNoah\u201d filmmaker launched AI studio Primordial Soup last year in collaboration with Google DeepMind and is currently heavily invested in understanding how the technology might shape the future of cinema.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked by Variety whether or not he and Aronofsky have spoken about how AI might affect their collaboration, Libatique says they are currently \u201ctesting\u201d the technology ahead of shooting their next film together. \u201cWe\u2019ve discussed it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a test soon. I have a belief that the more you give to the system, the more it\u2019s gonna have what you\u2019re looking for. He wants to see how little you can do; we both want to learn more about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cIron Man\u201d cinematographer adds that AI \u201cwon\u2019t replace cinema.\u201d \u201cWhat it could replace is Marvel,\u201d he adds, clarifying that the major studio and others like DC \u201cmake these giant films and technology is clearly a part of it.\u201d \u201cThey make their movies for so much money, I can understand why, through visual effects, they are going to have to employ AI to curb some of their costs,\u201d he goes on, noting how he doesn\u2019t think, however, that Marvel \u201cwill ever use AI actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ve always been able to get a personality into the characters, whether it\u2019s Chris Evans or Robert Downey Jr.; these people become these characters people fall in love with,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be a Tilly Norwood Batwoman or Black Widow. You can\u2019t tell me you\u2019re going to make an AI character that can do what Robert Pattinson does. You can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLibatique brings up Zach Snyder\u2019s \u201c300\u201d as an example of a film that could become an AI product in today\u2019s day and age. The 2006 epic was filmed almost entirely against green screens in a massive warehouse, with the creative team constructing almost all landscapes digitally. \u201cIt was basically our early AI movie. If you want your movie to look that way, go for it. But, again, how do we connect [to it] as humans? The audience for some of these films is really limited. It\u2019s limited by age, gender, and also by social interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNobody\u2019s going to make \u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 with AI,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cSo I would pump the brakes on the idea that it is going to replace us all, because I don\u2019t think there is going to be a time when we as a society turn our backs on cinema because we need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cIron Man,\u201d courtesy of Marvel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Marvel<\/p>\n

\n\tReturning to Aronofsky, while Libatique can\u2019t reveal further details on their next project and the full extent AI will be used in it, he is adamant the film will remain \u201chuman.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re gonna make it like a movie. We\u2019re gonna stand on set. Darren is gonna get on his knees, and he\u2019s gonna move everything around with his fingers, and he\u2019ll do what he usually does. But it\u2019s a different thing, the AI. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s replacing what he does, but he\u2019s interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cinematographer says one of the things the duo is discussing is \u201cusing the camera the way we use the camera and then see what this technology can do.\u201d \u201c[Aronofsky] has been given money to be able to explore this, so I applaud him for that. I feel I need to understand it better. I think you have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Libatique is \u201cannoyed\u201d by conversations around the technology, he can also see its benefits. The maestro DP says he has used AI in post-production and can see it being helpful to his craft when it comes to correcting glare, for example. \u201cThe machine learning how to do that is helpful to me, rather than sending it to another country so that some people who are getting $2 an hour can do it,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen prodded as to how the technology is stripping away jobs from post-production experts, Libatique is quick to recognize the harsh reality of that situation. \u201cI feel for them,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s insensitive for me to revel in the fact that I can do some of the things in a room that we can do now because it definitely took some work away. But that work was taken away from people in our industry anyway, and it was given to basically sweatshops in other countries. I guess the question is when does it end? When does it start really replacing people? It\u2019s a mental exercise to try to figure that out: when is the next shoe that\u2019s going to drop that\u2019s going to affect everyone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cBlack Swan,\u201d courtesy of Fox Searchlight\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cBlack Swan,\u201d courtesy of Fox Searchlight\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cinematographer recently had a parallel experience with AI usage in filmmaking when he shot Dustin Yellin\u2019s \u201cGoodbye Lamby.\u201d The short film sees the director use artificial intelligence to imagine a world within one of his most famous sculptures. \u201cIn the old days, if you wanted to do it, you could do it with stop motion animation,\u201d says Libatique. \u201cBut because we now have this thing that everybody is so enamored of, they made it in AI. And it was relatively successful because you\u2019re not dealing with reality there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLibatique was surprised when the person responsible for the AI prompting asked him to physically light a space for a scene before she could move on with her work. \u201cI talked to the person doing the prompting; there were things that she needed physically from me for her to create a shortcut for prompting,\u201d he notes. \u201cIt was easier to place a light in the hole in the roof than it is for her to try to convince [the machine] to do what she wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParadoxically, despite admitting to using AI, the \u201cA Star Is Born\u201d cinematographer is concerned with how the technology \u201cpulls its references\u201d and issues of creative copyright. \u201cOn two occasions, someone has sent me AI videos where the machine was told to shoot in the style of Matthew Libatique,\u201d he recalls. \u201cHow come everything I do is out for grabs? That\u2019s absolutely offensive. I mean, I am flattered that somebody sent me this video, but it\u2019s horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t have a distinctive style. I always try to find a story in what I do,\u201d he goes on. \u201cI don\u2019t try to impose myself on a movie. I only impose myself in the sense that I\u2019m trying to understand who the director I\u2019m working with is so that I can use my skills to help that vision, whether it\u2019s Olivia Wilde or Jodie Foster or Jon Favreau. AI is all the same; it\u2019s so plastic. To take everything I\u2019ve done and distill it into a style that is uniquely mine is completely incorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe other thing is: who is in charge of prompting? Who has taste? The human element is what makes all films different,\u201d he adds. \u201cI already have a problem with how everything kind of looks the same [today]. Lighting has become homogeneous in films. Everything is like a Temu David Fincher. I see him over and over again because he\u2019s such a visual reference for many of us. For me, what matters is the end result, and I haven\u2019t seen anything created by AI that\u2019s really impressed me \u2013\u00a0and I am not sure I will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stepping outside the airport in Mallorca, three-time Oscar-nominee cinematographer Matthew Libatique was taken aback by the light. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,138823,298060,85,46,298061,125],"class_list":["post-662147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-darren-aronofsky","tag-evolution-mallorca","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-matthew-libatique","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}