Gareth Edwards’ ‘The Creator’ zeroes in on AI tension as WGA leaders make a deal
The Business
KCRW
4.5 • 699 Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2023
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
WGA leaders reached a deal this week with Hollywood studios, ending 148 days of work stoppage. What did they get? Where did they compromise? And will SAG-AFTRA be next? Plus, director Gareth Edwards discusses his new AI-centric film The Creator and its timeliness within our current cultural climate. He also gets real about behind-the-scenes drama on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business. |
| 0:05.4 | When director Gareth Edwards pitched his science fiction thriller, The Creator, to Disney, |
| 0:10.2 | executives at the studio were baffled by the idea of artificial intelligence posing a threat to humanity. |
| 0:16.7 | The simple explanation was, like, something terrible has happened in America. |
| 0:21.5 | As a result, the West is completely banned AI, like it terrible has happened in America. As a result, |
| 0:26.4 | the West has completely banned AI, like it's completely outlawed. And the big note I always kept getting back from the studio was, but why would you ban AI? They're not asking it anymore. |
| 0:32.7 | Gareth Edwards talks about releasing a dystopian film centered on artificial intelligence |
| 0:37.3 | in the midst of heated industry |
| 0:39.0 | battles on the same topic. And he addresses the behind-the-scenes drama he faced as director on the |
| 0:44.7 | troubled Star Wars movie, Rogue One. He also explains why he shot the creator with a camera that you |
| 0:50.6 | could buy at your neighborhood electronics store. But first we banter. Stick |
| 0:55.1 | around. It's the business from KCRW. I am joined by my partner in banter. Matt Bellany. |
| 1:01.8 | Hello, Matt. Hi there. So, finally, I'm very pleased, and I'm sure everybody who can hear this |
| 1:08.4 | and more, is very pleased that the writer's strike is over. |
| 1:11.7 | The deal that they made with the studios still has to be ratified, but it looks like a pretty |
| 1:16.7 | good deal. And I will just mention, you know, referencing a piece I did on how this deal got done. |
| 1:22.0 | You know, they were at this impasse where they were trading accusations that, you owe us a call. No, you owe us a call. And as we |
| 1:30.9 | understand it, finally, Chris Kaiser, who's co-head of the negotiating committee for the guild, called Bob |
| 1:35.7 | Eiger. This would have been on September 10th. And basically, they had a long, and very frank, |
| 1:41.6 | I am told, conversation. And the gist was, we have to get people back to |
| 1:47.3 | work. We can't keep trading questions about you owe us a call. No, you owe us a call. So I will note |
| 1:53.0 | there were four executives in the room, Donna Langley from NBC Universal, of course, Bob Iger, |
... |
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