Fiscally, we've raised 30k from SFF Speculation Grant, waiting for the resolution of the main one from S-Process. We aim to press again the fundraising efforts once we have the new pitch deck with locked in production design.

@carol

Hi @carol! We are planning to release a bigger public update in a few weeks with representative samples of the film.

We are just wrapping up the pre-production phase and locking in the ideas from our research and tests. Until now, the project has been changing quite a lot.

From September onwards, we plan to be posting regular updates and behind the scenes.
We are also puting together the latest pitch deck for private sharing.

The development phase took a bit longer than we initially stated. The main constraint is the quality of the script which is hard to speed up. Generally, we are carefully threading the kneedle between making a fun to watch sci-fi film and making a piece with a pro-human theory of change adressing gradual disempowerment.

It would be way easier if we are just making a scientifically backed nihilistic sci-fi horror about GD.

However, I feel confident and at ease about the artistic and technical side of our film.

I was worried (in context of our competition) that by Q3 2026, there will be popping up AI generated feature films of rather disappointing quality and around Q4 26 and Q1 27 we will start seeing actually good ones. But it seems, the current state is that in Q3 we have uber-cool AI short videos like this or this one, and disappointing 13 minute films by established Hollywood directors.

With my core team (editor Vojtech Mrkus and musical composer Anna Pinskaya, veterans of previous SOTA AI films: Scalespace and Dwarkesh's AI Firms) we think we are aware of the (often tacit) mechanisms of why longer and bigger budget AI projects disconnect from audience, and we've been mastering the ways around it. I will write more about our techniques on the film's blog in September.

We feel the time pressure because of the window when our film can be most relevant and impactful,
and we hope to release the film in Q1 2027.

Petr

What progress have you made since your last update?

1. Got a Czech film producer on board (his co-produced film won the Jury Award for Creative Vision and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival). We have been developing the production and distribution strategy together.

2. We have a solid draft of the storyline (treatment) and a plausible theory of change concept. It is being made in collaboration with a screenwriter and several consultants.

3. We have been consulting deeply the project with tech insiders, AGI alignment researchers and film distribution experts. The storyline and ToC have generally gotten approving feedback from the researchers.

4. We have been doing visual and technical tests.

What are your next steps?

1. We are finishing the 1st version of the "package" - a pitch deck with film samples (story, visuals, ToC) and a production strategy. To be privately presented at Berlinale in mid-February.

2. We aim to develop a more juicy version of the package by mid-March to be presented in the Bay Area, privately and also during the Frame Fellowship events (Petr got invited as a visiting fellow).

3. We are starting talks with potential funders, co-producers, and media institutions for the production stage later this month with the first version pitch.

4. We keep developing and refining the treatment into a screenplay. Generally, the processes of refining the script seems as the harder part (we also expect to take advantage of gen AI blending the processes of production and post-production for more finer iteration).

5. We are developing a marketing strategy that utilizes gen AI and social media (behind the scenes, online presence of some characters...).

Is there anything others could help you with?

1. Theatre, TV broadcasters and VOD streaming platform sales and distribution leads. We are interested in regional institutions in different countries - we see high potential in localized adaptations.

2. Equity funders for production and distribution.

3. Creative and scientific consultants, tech and politics insiders.
   
   The topic of the film is very nuanced and complex. We still need to refine the message and ToC of the film and its future campaign.

If you want to learn more, email me to schedule a video call.

Happy to talk and show you some mindblowing AI movie stuff.

Petr Salaba

Thank you @Austin!

Good question about the potential profitability of the feature film. We are indeed expecting the result of the Phase 2 to recover its costs, especially considering our competetive advantage in being early and skilled adopters of generative AI.

To give a clear and concrete answer to this question is part of figuring out the production strategy during the Phase 1.

The idea is to honor the charitable nature of the project, so with the collaborators being fairly paid, the excess box office would be probably given back into the funding ecosystem and/or used for further campaign efforts and aditional media content that wouldn't be profitable on its own (educational, documentary).

This will be fully and clearly defined in the strategy at the end of the Phase 1 before we move to the Phase 2. When we have it, we start fundraising the 2M (production) + 5M (marketing and campaign).