Antonio Banderas will star as Hernán Cortés in ‘Cortés,’ a new AI-powered film from Utopai Studios. The movie, currently in production, follows the Spanish conquistador’s 1519 expedition to the Yucatán and his complex relationship with Marina.
The Oscar-nominated actor Antonio Banderas will star as Hernán Cortés in Utopai Studios’ ‘Cortés,’ a new feature film powered by AI and directed by Paul Mignot, reported Variety. It is written by fellow Oscar nominee Nicholas Kazan.
The film is currently in production in Paris and focuses on Banderas’ Cortés as a glory-hungry soldier in 1519 who leads an expedition to the Yucatán. “After landing on the coast of what is now Mexico, he meets Marina, an enslaved Indigenous woman and gifted linguist who becomes indispensable to his advance. As Cortés turns fragile alliances, faith and fear into instruments of conquest, Marina watches him transform from a daring outlaw into a self-anointed messiah,” read the logline as quoted by Variety.
AI Integration in Hollywood
The film is a co-production between Utopai and Ex Machina Studios, a new production company dedicated to “advancing episodic and feature-length cinema through the ethical, artist-first integration of artificial intelligence,” reported Variety. Banderas is the latest Hollywood veteran to align themselves with an AI-focused company, a stamp of approval that comes as the film industry remains divided over the technology’s presence in production workflows.
Utopai’s Expanding AI Slate
‘Cortés’ was one of the company’s first slated projects upon Utopai’s rebrand as an entertainment studio last year, though with production designer Kirk Petruccelli set to make his directorial debut instead. According to the outlet, Utopai has amassed an extensive slate of projects, both completely AI-generated and AI-enabled, for a fledgling studio.
It is working on an AI-assisted animated feature-length adaptation of ‘The Most Serious Fart’, a 2023 children’s book written by ‘Not Another Teen Movie’ screenwriter Mike Bender. It also partnered with the Chinese production company Huace to produce a fully AI-generated adaptation of ‘Journey to the West: The Lost Five Hundred Years,’ an origin story of the 1592 Chinese mythological book. ‘Cortés,’ ‘The Most Serious Fart’ and the live-action feature ‘Half Moon’ are set for release sometime next year.
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