Meta teams up with horror shop Blumhouse to test AI Movie Gen

Meta (NASDAQ:META) said on Thursday it is partnering with Blumhouse Productions, the production studio best known for its horror movies, to use its new artificial intelligence movie generator.

Meta shares rose 0.6% in midday trading.

Known as Movie Gen, the product (which was announced earlier this month) will be used by a select group of filmmakers — Aneesh Chaganty, The Spurlock Sisters and Casey Affleck — to try out the tools and then use the generated video clips as part of larger creations, Meta said. Chaganty’s short film and experimental videos are available on Meta’s Movie Gen page, while the films from Affleck and The Spurlock Sisters are forthcoming, Meta added.

“Artists are and forever will be the lifeblood of our industry. Innovation and tools that can help those artists better tell their stories is something we are always keen to explore, and we welcomed the chance for some of them to test this cutting-edge technology and give their notes on its pros and cons while it’s still in development,” Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse, said in a blog post. “These are going to be powerful tools for directors, and it’s important to engage the creative industry in their development to make sure they’re best suited for the job.”

Movie Gen competes with products like Sora, which was developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI (MSFT) and Adobe’s (ADBE) recently announced products.

Blumhouse merged with production company Atomic Monster, founded by filmmaker James Wan, earlier this year. The combined company has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA). Blumhouse is best known for its horror films, including The Purge, The Invisible Man, M3GAN, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, among others.

Last month, Lionsgate Entertainment (LGF.A) (LGF.B) said it was partnering with AI-startup Runway to create and train a new AI model that will be used for Lionsgate’s film and television content.