Dark City Director Alex Proyas Returns to Filmmaking With AI Tools

Alex Proyas, the director of the cult science fiction films The Crow, Dark City and I, Robot, is returning to directing after nearly a decade of silence. His new project, the satirical film Heaven, will be made with the help of proprietary generative AI tools from studio Ex Machina, aimed at finally realizing a vision that has lacked funding for years.

A Return After Years of Silence

Proyas has not directed a theatrical film since Gods of Egypt in 2016, a production that was coolly received by both critics and audiences despite a budget of up to $140 million. Since then, the director has stayed out of the spotlight, though he has spent years trying to get Heaven made, a project described as a dark satire in the spirit of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Heaven follows a desperate bureaucrat who escapes his crumbling life by moving to a technologically perfect afterlife. He soon discovers that this apparent paradise is a carefully constructed illusion with terrifying consequences. For years, the production was held back by budget constraints too high for a project of this scale under a traditional visual effects model.

How Ex Machina Studios Works

Behind the project's technology is Ex Machina Studios, a Los Angeles-based company led by producer Marco Weber, known for Igby Goes Down, filmmaker Martin Weisz, and Tom Ryan, co-founder of Pluto TV and former head of Paramount Streaming. The studio says its generative AI tools will allow it to build elaborate, fantastical worlds on a controlled budget while remaining fully compliant with industry union agreements.

In practice, this means AI is meant to take on the most expensive parts of production, namely set design and the creation of vast, technologically advanced worlds, while actors will still perform scenes live. The venture's partner is K5 International, a distribution rights sales company that promoted the project at the Cannes film market.

This is truly a personal project, and the opportunity to realize such a visually bold and emotionally moving story is enormously exciting to me - Alex Proyas, director

A Hollywood Trend

Heaven is not an isolated case. Other prominent names in film are following a similar path, including Natasha Lyonne with Uncanny Valley and David Mackenzie with Veritas. Industry observers note that a distinct category of production is emerging, one that blends generative AI with an aesthetic drawn from Philip K. Dick's prose, full of unsettling, slightly artificial worlds.

For film studios and independent producers, the promise is simple: visual effects and the construction of entire worlds that once required tens of millions of dollars and months of artists' work are meant to become cheaper and faster thanks to generative models. That opens the door to projects that have long been stuck at the financing stage, as happened with Heaven.

What It Means for the Industry

The use of AI in big-budget filmmaking remains a contentious topic in Hollywood, where actors' and writers' unions have for years demanded guarantees that the technology will not replace creative talent but merely support the production process. Ex Machina Studios' claim of full compliance with union agreements is meant to address these concerns, though a final verdict will only be possible once the results appear on screen.

For Poland's film and advertising market, Proyas's story shows where mid-budget productions with visual ambitions comparable to major studio blockbusters may be headed. If the Ex Machina model proves successful, similar tools could also reach European and Polish producers looking for ways to cut digital set design costs.

Heaven does not yet have a confirmed release date, and the project is still in the process of finalizing casting and financing. Casting is underway in Los Angeles, and K5 International continues talks with distributors following the Cannes presentation.