AI slop movies are the new direct-to-video cash grabs
AI slop movies are the new direct-to-video cash grabs
AI 垃圾电影是新一代“录像带直发”式的圈钱工具
Projects like Odysseus: The Fall highlight how the AI hype machine is powered by stunts and stolen valor. 像《奥德修斯：陨落》（Odysseus: The Fall）这样的项目凸显了 AI 炒作机器是如何靠噱头和窃取他人成就来维持的。
This weekend, cinephiles across the world will march to their local theaters to feast their eyes on Christopher Nolan’s new adaptation of The Odyssey. It’s on track to rake in anywhere between $80–$100 million in just a few days. People are clearly excited to see how Nolan uses cutting-edge filmmaking tech to make the Homeric classic feel fresh. But another director is trying to capitalize on the buzz around Nolan’s project to drum up interest in an Odysseus-focused movie of his own. 本周末，全球影迷将涌向当地影院，一睹克里斯托弗·诺兰（Christopher Nolan）改编的新作《奥德赛》（The Odyssey）。该片有望在短短几天内斩获 8000 万至 1 亿美元的票房。人们显然很兴奋，想看看诺兰如何利用尖端电影技术让这部荷马史诗焕发新生。但另一位导演正试图利用诺兰项目的热度，为自己那部以奥德修斯为主角的电影造势。
On Tuesday, film studio Fountain 0 announced that it is working on an AI-generated reimagining of The Odyssey titled Odysseus: The Fall, which will be available to rent or buy from the company digitally sometime later this summer. The movie comes from director Ash Koosha, who previously collaborated with the startup to make Dreams of Violets — an AI-generated docudrama about the civil unrest and state violence that have rocked Iran between late 2025 and early 2026. Like Dreams of Violets — which reportedly cost only $2,000 to make — Odysseus: The Fall’s production budget is said to be a fraction of a traditionally produced movie’s. Koosha was able to write / direct / edit the movie with a budget in the “mid-five figures,” which is nothing compared to the $250 million Nolan needed to shoot The Odyssey. 周二，电影工作室 Fountain 0 宣布正在制作一部名为《奥德修斯：陨落》的 AI 生成版《奥德赛》，该片将于今年夏末以数字租赁或购买的形式上线。这部电影由导演 Ash Koosha 执导，他此前曾与该初创公司合作制作了《紫罗兰之梦》（Dreams of Violets）——一部关于 2025 年末至 2026 年初伊朗动荡与国家暴力的 AI 生成纪录片。与据称制作成本仅 2000 美元的《紫罗兰之梦》一样，《奥德修斯：陨落》的制作预算据称仅为传统电影的一小部分。Koosha 以“五位数中段”的预算完成了编剧、导演和剪辑工作，这与诺兰拍摄《奥德赛》所需的 2.5 亿美元相比简直微不足道。
Odysseus: The Fall’s trailer makes it pretty obvious what kind of “film” Koosha has cooked up using Kling’s AI video generator and Google’s Nano Banana. Every shot seems short, and they all have that over-glossy aesthetic we associate with AI slop. The characters are modeled after real humans — this Odysseus was modeled after Koosha’s own likeness, and the director voices the entire cast — but there’s still an uncanny stiffness to the way they move and speak that makes them feel wholly AI. 《奥德修斯：陨落》的预告片清楚地展示了 Koosha 利用 Kling AI 视频生成器和 Google 的 Nano Banana 炮制出的是什么样的“电影”。每一个镜头都显得很短，且都带有我们所熟悉的 AI 垃圾内容那种过度光鲜的质感。角色是以真人为原型建模的——片中的奥德修斯是以 Koosha 本人的形象建模的，且由导演本人为全片角色配音——但他们移动和说话的方式依然有一种诡异的僵硬感，让人感觉完全是 AI 生成的。
What’s also clear is that Fountain 0 is trying to ride Nolan’s coattails in order to market its AI services while selling what’s essentially a direct-to-video knockoff of a film that people actually want to see. Speaking to Variety, Fountain 0’s executive chairman, Tom Rogers, said that their project is aimed at people who might not “like going to the movie theaters, but have a real interest in AI and what’s going on.” This makes Odysseus: The Fall sound less like a filmmaker’s earnest interpretation of The Odyssey and more like an elaborate advertisement for Fountain 0’s AI-forward production workflow. 显而易见，Fountain 0 正试图搭诺兰的顺风车来推销其 AI 服务，同时兜售一部本质上是人们真正想看的电影的“录像带直发”式山寨品。Fountain 0 执行董事长 Tom Rogers 在接受《综艺》（Variety）采访时表示，他们的项目针对的是那些可能“不喜欢去电影院，但对 AI 和行业动态有浓厚兴趣”的人。这让《奥德修斯：陨落》听起来不像是一位电影人对《奥德赛》的真诚解读，而更像是为 Fountain 0 的 AI 驱动型制作流程所做的精心广告。
“[W]e actually think, when our film is released, that it will be a catalyst for a lot of people who might not otherwise have seen the Odyssey to hopefully go see it, so they can compare the state of the highest state of human filmmaking achievement, which I truly expect the reviews to suggest Nolan’s film is, with what the top state of the art in AI filmmaking today,” Rogers said. “我们实际上认为，当我们的电影上映时，它将成为许多原本可能不会去看《奥德赛》的人的催化剂，希望他们能去看看，这样他们就可以将人类电影制作的最高成就（我真心期待评论界会认为诺兰的电影就是如此）与当今 AI 电影制作的顶尖水平进行比较，”Rogers 说道。
Rogers wasn’t exactly suggesting Odysseus: The Fall will be able to hold a candle to The Odyssey, but he was saying that Fountain 0’s projects represent the best kind of “films” that AI firms are capable of making. Rogers might genuinely believe that his company’s features are good, but when you watch Dreams of Violets — which plays like a collection of prompted clips — it’s hard to imagine theatergoers would agree with him. Rogers 并不是在暗示《奥德修斯：陨落》能与《奥德赛》相提并论，但他是在说 Fountain 0 的项目代表了 AI 公司所能制作出的最好类型的“电影”。Rogers 可能真心认为他公司的作品很棒，但当你观看《紫罗兰之梦》时——它看起来就像是一堆提示词生成的片段合集——很难想象影迷们会认同他的观点。
Seeing the visual grandeur and studied artistry of Nolan’s The Odyssey makes you appreciate how it is the product of hundreds of humans tirelessly working together to make a truly epic piece of art. Fountain 0 has made a big deal out of the fact that Koosha and his brother Pooya did most of the work on Odysseus: The Fall themselves, but that isn’t really the sort of thing that convinces people to buy movie tickets. 看到诺兰版《奥德赛》的视觉宏大和深思熟虑的艺术性，你会意识到它是数百人不知疲倦地共同努力，创造出真正史诗级艺术作品的结晶。Fountain 0 大肆宣扬 Koosha 和他的兄弟 Pooya 自己完成了《奥德修斯：陨落》的大部分工作，但这并不是那种能说服人们购买电影票的理由。
Though there was a (dubious) argument to be made that Dreams of Violets was trying to raise public awareness about Iran’s history of human rights violations, it’s hard not to see Odysseus: The Fall as yet another AI-hyping stunt that has little to do with the celebration of art. This was similarly the entire ethos behind ElevenLabs’ recently released The Odyssey audiobook narrated by an AI-generated facsimile of Michael Caine. It’s also the entire ethos behind studio / startup Particle6’s repeated attempts to convince everyone that “AI actress” Tilly Norwood is a thing that we should all spend time thinking about. 尽管有人（虽然存疑）认为《紫罗兰之梦》旨在提高公众对伊朗侵犯人权历史的关注，但很难不把《奥德修斯：陨落》看作又一场与艺术赞美毫无关系的 AI 炒作噱头。ElevenLabs 最近发布的由 AI 生成的迈克尔·凯恩（Michael Caine）仿声朗读的《奥德赛》有声书，其背后的理念也如出一辙。这也是工作室/初创公司 Particle6 一再试图说服大家“AI 女演员”Tilly Norwood 是一个值得我们花时间关注的事物背后的全部逻辑。
Like Fountain 0, Particle6 recently announced its own plans to put out a feature-length movie starring an avatar. Both of these companies seem to think that they can troll their way into relevance before becoming widely accepted parts of the entertainment industry. But what they don’t seem to realize is that the thing that gets people eager to see a film like Nolan’s The Odyssey is the way it embodies the deeply collaborative human elements of traditional filmmaking. 与 Fountain 0 一样，Particle6 最近也宣布了其计划，将推出一部由虚拟化身主演的长篇电影。这两家公司似乎都认为，他们可以通过这种“钓鱼”式营销在进入主流娱乐产业之前获得关注。但他们似乎没有意识到，让人们渴望观看像诺兰版《奥德赛》这样的电影的原因，在于它体现了传统电影制作中那种深度协作的人文元素。
The effusive praise and hateful backlash that The Odyssey has drawn both speak to Nolan’s ability to craft works of art that elicit genuine emotion from audiences. Those powerful feelings are what drive film discourse and get people buying movie tickets, which keeps major studios like Universal in business. For all the promises that gen AI is going to fundamentally reshape the entertainment industry, the technology’s boosters have yet to release a film or series that comes anywhere close to drumming up the excitement Nolan’s fans have for The Odyssey. And they never will if stunts like the one Fountain 0 is trying to pull are all they have to offer. 《奥德赛》所引发的溢美之词和激烈抨击，都证明了诺兰有能力创作出能激发观众真实情感的艺术作品。这些强烈的情感正是推动电影讨论并促使人们购买电影票的动力，这也正是环球影业等大型制片厂能够持续经营的原因。尽管生成式 AI 被承诺将从根本上重塑娱乐产业，但该技术的支持者们尚未发布任何一部能与诺兰粉丝对《奥德赛》的热情相提并论的电影或剧集。如果他们能提供的仅仅是像 Fountain 0 试图搞出的这种噱头，那么他们永远也做不到。