Scorsese joins AI startup Black Forest Labs as partner

Martin Scorsese has joined generative AI startup Black Forest Labs as a partner and adviser, the New York Times reported Tuesday.techcrunch
Scorsese said the company’s FLUX.2 model helps him communicate his vision to cinematographers and designers during pre-production.mandatory
The endorsement enters one of Hollywood’s most contentious debates, as studios and unions continue negotiating AI’s role in filmmaking.bolavip

Scorsese Joins Black Forest Labs as AI Adviser

Martin Scorsese, the 83-year-old director behind “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” has joined generative AI startup Black Forest Labs as a partner and adviser, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The announcement makes Scorsese one of the most prominent filmmakers to publicly embrace AI tools, entering what remains one of Hollywood’s most contentious debates.techcrunch

A Storyboarding Tool, Not a Replacement

In a video released by Black Forest Labs, Scorsese is seen working through a storyboarding session, describing scenes that are then generated using the company’s FLUX.2 image model. Someone else generates the prompts based on Scorsese’s verbal direction, with the resulting images used to communicate his creative vision to cinematographers and production designers.mandatory

Scorsese emphasized that his use of the technology is limited to pre-production. “This technology enables me to communicate my vision more clearly and efficiently to my creative team, including the production designer, art director, and cinematographer,” he said in a statement to the Times. He described the AI-generated imagery as conveying “cinematic intelligence,” according to Robin Rombach, a co-founder of Black Forest Labs who highlighted the phrase on social media.indiewire

The director has reportedly been involved with the company as an adviser for nearly a year.indiewire

Hollywood’s AI Divide

Scorsese framed his openness to the technology in historical terms: “Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve”. The statement positions him apart from many in the industry who have resisted generative AI over concerns about job displacement and intellectual property.x

Black Forest Labs, a research-oriented startup known for its FLUX image generation model, gains a powerful endorsement at a time when studios and unions continue to negotiate the boundaries of AI use in production. By confining his involvement to storyboarding rather than final imagery, Scorsese appears to be drawing a line that may prove influential in shaping how other filmmakers approach the technology.bolavip