The details are beyond fuzzy, so don’t hold your breath for this one.
Tilly Norwood is an AI “actor” that pops up every now and again in various marketing stunts. Now she’s starring in her own movie, according to a report by Variety. It’s called Misaligned and is being made by Particle6 Productions, the same company behind the uncanny valley-adjacent Norwood.
It’s being described as a “coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos.” It’s set in, and this is not a joke, the “Tillyverse” and involves Norwood trying to become more human as she encounters a “seductive rogue bot from the dark web.” CEO Eline van der Velden says “the film will absolutely be funny, chaotic and self-aware — very Tilly.”
This would be the first full-length feature film from Particle6. Particle6 thus far has specialized in short-form AI marketing videos that are fairly heavy on the slop.
I’m no expert, but I happen to think there’s a wide gulf between a 15 second AI-generated perfume ad on Instagram and a feature-length movie. The company does offer a service to film studios that leverages AI for landscape generation and VFX, but we aren’t sure how successful it’s been. It did recently make this Tilly Norwood music video that made me feel trapped inside of a nightmare, so there’s that.
The company hasn’t announced any human collaborators from the film industry, but has suggested it’ll be a hybrid production that pairs traditional filmmakers with “AI specialists.” We don’t know if there’s a script or anything like that.Â
I am highly skeptical this will ever get made, and this isn’t me railing against AI. It’s me railing against Tilly Norwood. The AI-generated character has always seemed more like a ragebait machine than a serious attempt to bring this technology to the film industry.
When Norwood was first introduced via a publicity stunt at the Zurich Film Festival, it stirred up real fear in Hollywood. Particle6 responded to this with some short-form videos and captions that seemed to mock those fears.
I’m not sure Particle6 is interested in doing anything with Norwood other than making announcements that, in turn, grab headlines. It definitely worked today. In any event, we’ll have to wait and see if Misaligned actually gets made.