J.J. Abrams’ work writing, directing, and producing high-profile films like the most recent Star Wars trilogy has kept the multihyphenate less focused on television in recent years, but that could soon change. Abrams is reportedly shopping a new script he wrote for TV that could develop into the first series he has created and written since Fox’s Fringe ended in 2013.
The co-CEO of Bad Robot Productions has penned a sci-fi drama series that focuses on a family and is attracting interest from Apple and HBO, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While no company has confirmed its interest, the still-untitled project is reportedly open to bidders. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it land somewhere soon given the success Abrams has had over the years. He has created or co-created numerous popular series over the years, including The WB’s Felicity, ABC’s Alias and Lost, and, as mentioned above, Fringe.
The new would-be series, which comes from Warner Bros. Television, reportedly centers on a two parents and their child as their lives are rocked in the extreme by a horrible car accident. The scientist mother is left in a coma, which prompts her daughter to go through her work. That leads to her being transported to another world and then her father following after her. And in case that wasn’t enough chaos for the hapless family, there is a dangerous force at work.
The fact that Abrams had time to write this script is impressive, as his list of credits is constantly growing. He is responsible for writing the upcoming conclusion to the current Star Wars trilogy, Episode IX, not to mention directing and executive producing the film. On top of that, he is an executive producer for the forthcoming films God Particle, Overlord, and Mission: Impossible 6, all due out in 2018. He also executive produces HBO’s Westworld, which is heading into its second season, as well as the upcoming Hulu series Castle Rock.
Abrams clearly doesn’t mind taxing himself, nor do viewers object to seeing his work come to screen. We’ll be keeping tabs on his latest project and hope to see it on TV in the near future.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?