An AI Studio Making 'Quality' Movies for Dirt Cheap: Revolutionary or Dystopian?

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Pouya Shahbazian to discuss his company, Staircase Studios AI, a film, television, and gaming studio centered on an AI workflow that he claims revolutionizes the process of studio filmmaking. He explains how they plan to deliver “near-major-studio” levels of quality at budgets under $500,000, what their “talent-driven approach” actually looks like, and why this advancement in moviemaking technology should be embraced (02:38). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the future of Meghan Markle’s television show on Netflix (28:21). Watch a scene from 'The Woman with Red Hair' here. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! [email protected] Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Pouya Shahbazian Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you care about Hollywood, and I assume you do if you're listening to the town, you should really be getting the whole story about Hollywood.
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0:21.7	politics, and finance. It's a must have for plugged-in people. Fans of the town get a
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1:06.2	It is Monday, March 10th.
1:08.2	Here we go.
1:09.1	The AI movies are coming.
1:12.5	Last week, a new startup called Staircase Studios AI. They put out a trailer for a fully AI movie called The Woman with
1:18.6	Red Hair, based on a blacklist script. It caught my attention because this particular company
1:24.1	isn't some Silicon Valley interloper or tech-driven finance-driven nonsense
1:29.3	slot machine. It was founded by a traditional Hollywood producer who's worked on movies like
1:34.1	the Divergent franchise and backed by a big financier Ken Lurr. He launched Huffington Post and a bunch
	...

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