Christopher Nolan thinks artificial intelligence is hitting at “exactly the wrong time” for Hollywood, and Gen Z’s rejection of the new tech in film proves it.
While the “Odyssey” director and Directors Guild of America president stopped short of denouncing AI full stop, he cited its “wholesale dismissal” from Gen Z audiences — including his own children — as evidence that the coveted younger demographic wants authentic, real craft in their movies and TV. Case in point: The box office successes of filmmakers Kane Parsons and Curry Barker.
Speaking with the Telegraph in an interview published Friday, the director cited Parsons’ “Backrooms” and Barker’s “Obsession” as reasons to have faith in 20-something moviegoers.
“This is why I never bought into the arguments that young audiences’ attention spans are too fried to enjoy a three-hour Greek epic,” he said. “Those films are so mysterious and ruminative. I mean, parts of ‘Backrooms’ are like David Lynch at his most obscure. And yet young people can’t get enough of them.”
Expanding on the young directors’ ambivalence toward AI, Nolan said he was heartened by their commitment to the practical.
“I’ve never seen a more rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology in my lifetime,” he said. “So much energy has been expended on bringing in AI, but if you look at that generation’s reaction, they’re utterly rejecting it.”
Nolan added that his four children’s assessment of “AI slop has been immediate and harsh” and is something that doesn’t interest them as consumers of the arts.
“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,” he explained. “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. After years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling.”
Nolan’s dedication to practical storytelling in his own blockbuster films is well documented over the years, “The Odyssey” being the latest feather in that cap. So it doesn’t appear the Oscar winner is losing sleep over where Hollywood is headed in the age of Sam Altman and Google’s Veo 4.
In other words, the kids might just be all right.
