When Disney started working on the live-action remake of Moana, the studio explored the idea of using artificial intelligence to help bring the character of Maui to life, without always needing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on set.
Johnson, who’s returning to play the larger-than-life demigod, agreed to a plan where his cousin, Tanoai Reed, would act as a stand-in for certain scenes. Reed, who shares Johnson’s muscular build, would perform the role, while Disney and the AI company Metaphysic would use deepfake technology to overlay Johnson’s face onto the footage digitally. The idea was to create a “digital double,” allowing Johnson to appear in scenes without actually being physically present.
While Johnson was on board with the plan, things got complicated fast. Disney’s legal team had major concerns about how the AI technology would be used, how to secure the digital data, and whether Disney could even claim full ownership of a film that used AI-generated content. Negotiations with Metaphysic reportedly dragged on for about 18 months.
In the end, none of the AI-created footage will appear in the final version of Moana, which is set to release next summer.
This situation is just one example of how Hollywood is cautiously experimenting with artificial intelligence. Studios see the potential to save time and money, but they’re also facing legal questions, creative concerns, and public pushback. The future of AI in filmmaking may be promising, but as Disney’s Moana remake shows, the path forward is anything but simple.
Disney and Comcast’s Universal have taken a big step to protect their movies and characters. The two companies are suing the AI company Midjourney, alleging that it has illegally copied their copyrighted content. This legal action shows just how serious studios are about stopping AI tools from using their creative work without permission.
Tech companies like Google and OpenAI are now offering easy-to-use tools that let everyday people edit videos, photos, and sounds, effectively turning fans into their own producers. With these tools, anyone can change or recreate characters and scenes however they want. That’s a big challenge for a company like Disney, which is known for closely protecting its characters and stories. In their lawsuit against AI company Midjourney, Disney and Universal even included examples of AI-generated images that featured some of their most famous characters, like the Minions and Darth Vader, to show how their content is being used without permission.
Disney has always been careful about how its characters are used, especially when it comes to products like toys or clothing. The company typically avoids letting different characters appear together on the same item. That’s a big contrast to what AI tools now make possible; fans can easily mix and match Disney characters in ways the company would normally never allow.
When Disney princesses like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty appear together on items like lunchboxes or posters, designers must ensure they aren’t looking at each other. That’s because Disney wants each character to seem like they’re still in their own separate world. It actually took Disney years to allow characters from totally different stories, like C-3PO from Star Wars and Ariel from The Little Mermaid, to appear together in video games. The company has always been very careful about keeping its characters in their own “universes.”
An important question to consider is, who owns fan creations based on Disney characters? For instance, if a gamer produces a dance featuring Darth Vader and Spider-Man that becomes popular on YouTube, who holds the rights to that dance?
These concerns about ownership go far beyond Disney; they’re something all of Hollywood is thinking about. Typically, when a studio hires a visual effects company, the studio ultimately owns all the content created. But with AI-generated content, it’s not that simple. Without clear legal rules in place, studios worry they might not fully own parts of their own movies. And no studio lawyer wants to be the one who accidentally gives away that ownership.
For a company like Disney, which has so many iconic characters, the stakes are exceptionally high. As one executive put it, Disney isn’t looking to hand over control of its characters, like Darth Vader, in exchange for a quick paycheck. They want to ensure that those iconic characters remain part of the Disney family.
Source: WSJ
