Narnia Cinematographer Weighs in on A.I. in Film-Making
In a recent interview with the Chiaroscuro Podcast, Narnia Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey has revealed that he is utilizing elements of Artificial Intelligence on his “current project”. Whilst he doesn’t specifically mention Narnia by name, we can safely assume he is talking about ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ given that the podcast appears to have been recorded just a couple of weeks ago.
Although the primary subject of the podcast was about the Italian language TV series ‘Mussolini: Son of the Century’ (also known as “M”), the conversation later turned towards the future of cinematography and the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) at the 54 minute mark:
… we’re in a period of huge change at the moment, particularly with regard to A.I., but as new techniques come in, new lighting possibilities, new cameras come in, everything is changing. It’s evolving. But cinema is a young art form so inevitably things are gonna change. Who knows in what direction? I think that it will shift in a particular direction with A.I. that’s for sure, but I’m not afraid of it. I think that we can use it, [but] I don’t think that we can necessarily harness it, because it will take us in directions that are unexpected. But there is always transmogrification of art forms.
… so I actually, paradoxically, and I might be signing my own death warrant, but I’m excited by the prospect of A.I. and its uses in cinema, because I think that very quickly we remember that if you use a tool with impunity, without photographic heart and with your own discernment of the frame, then it becomes runaway, and it becomes like a badly written novel. So I think that you use it sparingly, or you use it completely, but with guidance. And you can guide A.I., I’ve been working with it on my current project.
Although McGarvey doesn’t specify exactly how he is using A.I. on his “current project” he does go on to explain how he also utilized it on the recent Mussolini biopic with Director Joe Wright in order to capture a single shot that otherwise would have been prohibitively expensive to stage in real life.
Whilst Artificial Intelligence is very much a hot button issue in cinema right now, its important to note that its use in film its not actually all that new. In the original Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001 – 2003), visual effects company Weta Digital utilized an A.I. based software package called “Massive” to create vast armies of battling orcs, elves and humans, such that each computer-generated solider would automatically perform its own actions, reducing the need to create thousands of unique animations by hand.
It remains to be seen exactly how the Narnia team might be seeking to utilize Artificial Intelligence on their upcoming Magician’s Nephew adaptation, however McGarvey does clarify that he does not see Artificial Intelligence itself as being the future of cinema, or of storytelling: (58:50)
“The times they are a’ changing for sure, but I don’t think that people are going to watch purely A.I images. The A.I. images that I’ve been working with subsequently (after Mussolini) have a ring of falsehood about them, particularly when it comes to looking at skin, and the way people move. It does feel soulless. I mean, A.I. never had a hangover, A.I. was never left by their partner, A.I never had someone die on them…. A.I. never had a baby and held them for the first time.
Those are the things that are distinctly and uniquely human, and it is our job as artists in cinema to depict those emotions to our fellow humans, because we all recognize those things when they’re told from one human to the other. There’s a very personal connection made in cinema, it’s unique to the art form. [It’s like] people around a glass-and-celluloid or pixel campfire telling stories to each other through our medium of cinema and that’s what excites me, and it’s what excites audiences who look at the images we create.
Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie is set to release in IMAX cinemas on November 26th, 2026, and will be available to stream via Netflix on December 25th 2026.
What are your thoughts on the use of Artificial Intelligence in cinema? Head on over the Forums to discuss in more detail or leave a comment below.
I think McGarvey’s comments strike a good balance between over-reactionary negativity, and something much more pragmatic and nuanced.
Ultimately, given that he is shooting Narnia on film, I can’t imagine the film is going to be overly stuffed with CGI anyway, but his comments here would suggest that he sees AI as something to be used sparingly and with caution.
Hi Icarus – Can you clarify why you say a film shooting on Narnia wouldn’t be overly stuffed with CGI? I don’t understand.
I think he sounds very reasonable about the whole thing. AI/Machine Learning is a tool to be used, not a gymmick or the lazy way out.
Correction: A movie shooting on *film*… hahaha.
@JonathanParavel – my logic there is that if you are going to the considerable effort of shooting on 35mm film, then the primary reason for doing so is so that you can better capture the natural light of a scene and gett a better, richer image on screen. Essentially you want to capture as much of the final scene in camera as possible.
If however you are mostly shooting on green screen with lots of VFX backgrounds and inserts, then the majority of your image ends up being artificial, the lighting needs to be computer generated as well, and the value of shooting on film is lost. Might as well shoot digitally as that point.