As Hollywood studios reduce risk and streaming platforms focus on profitability, one production company is betting that artificial intelligence can solve a problem at the centre of the entertainment business: the rising cost of making original films.
Acme AI & FX, led by Ryan Kavanaugh, Garrett Grant, Lawrence Grey and Matthew Kavanaugh, has spent nearly two years developing a production model that uses proprietary AI technology and grey-stage performance capture to create photorealistic digital environments around live human performances.
The company says its system can reduce below-the-line production costs and shorten shooting schedules while keeping actors, writers, directors and department heads in place.
That distinction is central to Acme’s market positioning. While much of the entertainment industry remains wary of AI following labour disputes and concerns about job displacement, Acme is pitching itself as a production infrastructure company rather than a replacement for creative labour.
Actors perform on stage. Directors direct the action. Writers and department heads remain part of the process. The company’s technology is used to reduce or eliminate many of the traditional costs associated with location shooting, set construction, travel, permits and logistical delays.
Acme says it can deliver films at roughly 20 percent of traditional below-the-line costs and cut shoot schedules by 60 to 70 percent.
The company’s thesis comes at a difficult moment for the film and television business. Studios have become more dependent on franchise properties and established intellectual property. Streamers have reduced spending growth and become more selective about greenlighting new projects. International buyers have also become more cautious, often favouring proven IP over original films.
The result has been a difficult environment for mid-budget and original projects.
Acme’s flagship production, Killing Satoshi, is nearing completion. Directed by Doug Liman and starring Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher, the film follows the mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. The screenplay was written by Nick Schenk.
The film was produced using Acme’s grey-stage model with AI-generated environments. Acme is also serving as VFX and AI partner on Stop That Train, a new film from director Adam Shankman.
The company says it has more than 15 film and television projects in various stages of production and pre-production, in addition to advertising work. It has built facilities in London, broken ground in Spain, operates a smaller studio in Los Angeles and plans to expand to New York.
Kavanaugh’s role gives the company a high-profile and sometimes controversial figurehead. He founded Relativity Media, which became one of Hollywood’s most prominent independent studios before entering bankruptcy protection in 2015. Kavanaugh later bought the company back out of Chapter 11 following a lengthy process.
Earlier in his career, Kavanaugh was associated with financing structures that helped channel institutional capital into Hollywood, including slate financing arrangements with major studios. He was also involved in early film and streaming distribution strategies.
The Acme model follows a similar entrepreneurial pattern: identify a structural inefficiency, build a financial or technological model around it, and use that model to unlock production volume.
The company still has to prove that its system can deliver consistent commercial results. But if it does, Acme could become a case study in how AI is applied to preserve, rather than replace, creative industries.
For Hollywood, the question is no longer whether AI will enter the production process. The question is who controls it, and whether it is used to reduce opportunity or expand it.