Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas, the director behind cult favorites The Crow, Dark City and the Will Smith sci-fi hit I, Robot, believes artificial intelligence could be a lifeline for an industry he describes as “broken.”

“The model for filmmakers … is broken, and it’s not AI that’s causing that. It’s the industry, it’s streaming,” Proyas tells The Guardian. With residuals shrinking in the streaming era and budgets tightening, he argues AI can help rebuild the system “from the ground up” by lowering the cost of production and allowing creators to retain more ownership.

Proyas’ upcoming film RUR — inspired by the 1920 Czech play that first introduced the word “robot” — is currently in production at his Sydney-based Heretic Foundation. Starring Samantha Allsop, Lindsay Farris and Anthony LaPaglia, the film explores the emancipation of robots from capitalist exploitation. Proyas says the project is being produced at a fraction of the $100 million price tag it would carry at a traditional studio, thanks to virtual production pipelines and a partnership with Dell that enables real-time generative AI asset creation.

The efficiencies are striking: environment design that once took six months can now be executed in eight weeks. But the filmmaker insists his own creative role — and the need for human collaborators — hasn’t changed. “My role as a director, creator, visual guy has not changed at all. Now I’m working with a smaller human team. My co-collaborators, being the AIs, have got to service my vision. And I know what that is.”

Proyas acknowledges that workforces will be “streamlined” but sees opportunities for retraining rather than replacement. “There will be work for everyone who embraces and moves forward with the technology as we’ve always done in the film industry,” he says, reframing AI not as “artificial intelligence” but as “augmenting intelligence.”

For the director who once imagined the world of 2035 in I, Robot, the sci-fi future has become a practical present. “You will always need a team of human beings,” Proyas says. “I think of the AIs as part of the collaborative team, which will allow smaller teams to do things better, faster and cheaper.”