A startup called Fable has just announced plans to recreate the 43 minutes of the lost film in Orson Welles's masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). This is a curious move, because Fable, which calls itself Net Netflix of AI, has recently received funding from Amazons Alexa Fund.
Fable develops a platform that allows users to create cartoons using AI. They started with their own projects but aimed to expand to a Hollywood content warehouse. In fact, this technology was illegally used to produce South Park episodes. Currently, Fable is introducing a new AI model, which is said to be capable of building long, complex stories. Filmmaker Brian Rose plans to use it to restore Ambersons' lost film, after many years of research to restore the original image.
It is worth mentioning that Fable does not own the copyright of the work. Therefore, the project is only a technological experiment, the possibility of being launched to the public is very low. Compared to Citizen Kane, Ambersons is only remembered as an unfinished masterpiece, cut by the studio and attached a awkward ending. It is this regret that makes Welles and her works an attractive topic.
However, Fable's project did not receive consensus from the Welles family. David Reeder - asset manager of Beatrice Welles criticized this as "a pure machine exercise, completely lacking Welles's unique creative thinking", and was upset that the family was not informed in advance.
Previously, many directors have tried to restore or edit Welles' unfinished films, but they still rely on the films he filmed directly. Meanwhile, Fable's plan is to combine AI and film with modern actors, then replace it with digital technology to recreate the original cast.
Rose believes this is a way to honor Welles, especially when a four-minute continuous scene now has only 50 seconds left. However, critics are concerned that no matter how convincing the AI is, the result is not Welles, but just a rough copy.
