Gore Verbinski has a blunt message for filmmakers thinking about handing the script over to AI. According to Variety, the Pirates of the Caribbean and Rango director called for a rating system that would disclose how artificial intelligence is used in movies. His sharpest example was screenwriting. Verbinski reportedly said that if AI is used to write a script, the film should receive an F in that system.
With Hollywood still trying to figure out where AI fits into the picture, this is a spicy take about AI-generated visuals and automated writing tools.
How this is a report card for AI in movies
Verbinski’s suggestion is interesting because it does not treat every use of AI as the same. A film using AI for a small technical assist would presumably be judged differently from one that uses AI to generate its story, characters, or dialogue. Most viewers probably would not react the same way to AI cleaning up background noise as they would to learning that a movie’s emotional climax came from a prompt box. So the proposed rating system would make that difference more visible.
It also gives audiences something they rarely get with AI, which is a transparent disclosure. As of right now, AI use in entertainment can be hard to track unless a studio, filmmaker, VFX house, or journalist spells it out. A rating-style label would make it harder to bury the details in vague production language.
How this ties in with his latest movie
Verbinski’s comments also line up neatly with his recent film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, a sci-fi comedy about a time traveler trying to stop a future shaped by artificial intelligence. The movie stars Sam Rockwell, with Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, and Juno Temple among the cast. The film uses AI anxiety as fuel for a chaotic genre mash-up. In earlier interviews, he has questioned why AI is being pushed into poetry, songs, and storytelling, areas he sees as deeply human.
The new grading system probably sounds unlikely to ever become a standard. Though the core idea does sound like something many would appreciate.