AI in Hollywood: Where It's Really Used

AI in Hollywood means de-aging actors, cloning archived voices with consent, and automating rotoscoping — not generating whole scenes from scratch. Studios are using AI in defined, bounded ways, and the first major equity deals between tech companies and studios signal that the relationship is becoming structural, not experimental.

The conversation around AI in Hollywood runs hot — either breathless enthusiasm or existential panic. The reality is specific. Here is where it's actually showing up, with real examples.

De-Aging and Digital Face Work

The most visible use of AI in Hollywood is face manipulation — restoring actors to younger versions of themselves or, in some cases, recreating performers who have died.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) set a high-water mark for the craft. ILM built a proprietary tool called ILM FaceSwap, combining CGI, machine learning, and photogrammetry. The 25-minute WWII prologue de-ages Harrison Ford roughly 35 years. It took over 100 artists and three years of work, trained on hundreds of hours of archival footage from the original trilogy. The result holds up in motion because the AI tool was built around Ford's specific face, not a general model.

Here (2024) took a different approach. Director Robert Zemeckis used Metaphysic's deepfake technology on set in real time — he could see the de-aged final look of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright on a monitor during performance, before any post work. Metaphysic won the VES Emerging Technology Award in 2025 for this work. The "in-camera" approach meant the actors could perform without the mental abstraction of imagining what the VFX would eventually look like.

Smaller-scale face work is also routine. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) used a tool called Vanity AI for digital touch-ups on Kathryn Newton. A Complete Unknown (2025) used Revize to swap a stuntman's face for Timothée Chalamet's in specific shots.

The trickiest case is Alien: Romulus (2024), which used AI to recreate the character Ash after original actor Ian Holm died in 2020. Estate consent and compensation were required — a template other productions are watching closely.

AI Voice Cloning

Lucasfilm has been the most public about AI voice work. For Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, Skywalker Sound partnered with Respeecher, a Ukrainian AI voice startup, to recreate a younger version of Darth Vader's voice using archival James Earl Jones recordings. Jones, then 91, reviewed and approved the output. Before his death, he signed paperwork giving Lucasfilm ongoing rights to use AI-generated versions of his voice for future projects — a consent-forward model that SAG-AFTRA has pointed to as a reference case.

Broader AI dubbing is also spreading through post-production. Studios have reported meaningful reductions in localization timelines by using AI lip-sync dubbing, though figures vary by production and vendor. ElevenLabs' "Video-to-Sound" tool, which analyzes VFX shots and auto-generates foley and sound effects, entered post-production workflows in 2025.

Rotoscoping and Post-Production Workflow

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a well-documented case of AI saving time in post. The editors used Runway's AI tools to rotoscope the alternate-universe climax sequence — specifically to remove crew members and pulley rigs from shots quickly, work that would have taken weeks manually.

Rotoscoping and cleanup work are where AI earns its keep most reliably in Hollywood right now. The tasks are repetitive, time-consuming, and don't require creative judgment. AI handles the labor; humans handle the exceptions.

Studio Equity Deals (2024–2026)

Two deals in 2024–2026 mark a shift from vendor relationships to structural investment.

Lionsgate partnered with Runway in 2024, the first major Hollywood studio to take that step. By June 2026, Lionsgate had taken an equity stake in Runway and announced plans for AI-generated short-form episodic content based on existing IP. The deal is complicated by questions about what content trained the underlying models.

Google DeepMind took an undisclosed equity stake in A24 in 2026 — Google's first direct equity stake in a Hollywood studio. A24 Labs, a 20-person internal unit, is building AI-assisted production tools: storyboard generators from scripts, and similar pre-production aids. DeepMind researchers are embedded inside active A24 productions. The deal explicitly does not give Google access to A24's content library, which was a sticking point in negotiations.

Union Agreements and the Regulatory Picture

The WGA's 2023 contract established that if studios use union members' scripts to train AI, they must compensate the writers. It was the first union agreement to treat AI training as a compensable act — a precedent that other guilds are now referencing.

SAG-AFTRA has pushed for the NO FAKES Act, pending US legislation that would restrict AI voice and likeness cloning without consent. The industry standard is moving toward explicit consent plus compensation, as the Darth Vader deal demonstrated.

Deloitte's 2025 TMT report found studios are still cautious about generative AI. Most current use falls into pre-production (script breakdown, budget modeling) and post-production (dubbing, rotoscoping). Generative video for principal photography remains experimental.

What This Means for Independent Creators

The tools available to Hollywood — de-aging, voice cloning, AI rotoscoping — are increasingly available to smaller productions at a fraction of the cost. The gap between studio-level visual work and independent AI filmmaking is closing as vendor pricing drops and model quality improves. AI micro-drama production has become meaningfully cheaper than traditional formats, and the vertical format (9:16) that platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox run on is purpose-built for AI pipelines.

The difference is workflow discipline. Hollywood's AI wins come from tight integration — ILM FaceSwap built specifically for Harrison Ford's face, Respeecher trained on Jones's archival recordings. For independent creators, the equivalent is maintaining character consistency through reference images, a reusable creative bible, and precise keyframe control, rather than improvising shot by shot.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AI actually doing in Hollywood right now?

The main applications verified through 2026 are de-aging and face replacement (ILM FaceSwap, Metaphysic, Vanity AI, Revize), AI voice cloning from archival recordings (Respeecher for Darth Vader), rotoscoping and VFX cleanup (Runway), AI foley generation (ElevenLabs), and AI-assisted dubbing for localization. Generative video for principal photography is not yet in mainstream use at major studios.

Is AI in Hollywood replacing actors?

Current use is mostly about time-saving in post-production or de-aging existing actors — not generating new performances from scratch. The emerging standard requires explicit consent and compensation when an actor's likeness or voice is recreated with AI, as the James Earl Jones / Darth Vader arrangement illustrates.

Which companies are behind AI in Hollywood?

Key vendors include ILM (in-house de-aging tools), Metaphysic (live on-set deepfakes), Respeecher (AI voice cloning), Runway (rotoscoping and generative video), Vanity AI (digital touch-ups), Revize (face replacement), ElevenLabs (AI sound design), and Google DeepMind (embedded R&D at A24 as of 2026).

How does AI in Hollywood compare to what independent creators can use?

The underlying technology overlaps significantly. Runway, ElevenLabs, and similar tools are available to independent producers. The main difference is that Hollywood projects invest heavily in customizing models for specific actors and shots. Independent AI filmmakers get the most from platforms with structured pipelines — script breakdown, asset libraries, keyframe control, and consistent video generation — rather than open-ended tools.

Keep learning

For a broader look at what AI-generated video can and cannot do, read what is an AI video generator. If you want to understand how the independent AI filmmaking workflow compares to traditional production, the AI filmmaking workflow walks through each stage from script to export. The question of whether AI will replace actors is covered in more depth, including the consent and compensation frameworks studios are currently negotiating.