110-minute AI film made in 4 weeks for $2M as MPA signs model-stack licensing deal
lmoroney · x · 2026-08-22
Three events the same week signal AI filmmaking has left the demo stage:
- Higgsfield's The Cully Hill Boys: a 110-minute action-comedy made in four weeks on a $2M budget, with roughly half the spend going to AI tokens (per Semafor). The script is a Black List title by Tim Planagan; Higgsfield bought the AI production rights while the writer kept traditional rights — a split worth studying. Leads including Mikyle "N3on" Rafiq and Israel Adesanya licensed their likenesses with no on-set shooting. Pipeline: Higgsfield Cinema Studio plus Seedance 2.5 in 30-second clips, Claude for prompts, Seedream plus Google Nano Banana for editing, with prompts invoking Edgar Wright and Guy Ritchie. A 28-person crew (about half with film experience) maintained continuity via reusable assets, and project files were open-sourced for Higgsfield Academy.
- MPA global deal covering ByteDance's Seedance and Seedream model stack.
- A Hollywood working group published the first public Human Generative Workflows authorship framework with three authorship buckets.
Critics note an unrealistic over-polished sheen and "prompt fatigue" that reads as bad acting; The Verge's Charles Pulliam-Moore called the film a polished ad for the company, carried by the script and stylized prompting.
Related event: AI Feature Film Made in 4 Weeks for $2M as MPA Strikes Licensing Deal(2 posts)→
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