EXCLUSIVE: Wonder Project, the independent producer of series like House of David, has teamed with pedigreed AI startup Luma to launch a new company, Innovative Dreams.
Described as a blend of production services provider, R&D lab and post-production and visual effects house, the new company is backed by Amazon Web Services. Wonder Project has had a multi-year relationship with Amazon MGM Studios, and runs a subscription service housed on Prime Video, where its originals also stream.
Innovative Dreams is championing what it says is a new method it calls “real-time hybrid filmmaking.” The company’s CEO, Jon Erwin, who also founded Wonder Project along with Netflix alum Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten, says the approach combines performance capture, virtual production and visual effects. It infuses generative AI technology into every stage of production, looking to widen access to tools historically available only to well-resourced A-list filmmakers like James Cameron.
The entertainment industry is in the midst of a reckoning with AI, which has brought disruption to many sectors of the U.S. economy. Many companies are beginning to lean into the potential, though it is a delicate proposition. Securing protections from the downside of the technology has been a core goal of labor unions in negotiations this year with studios and streamers as the parties look to avoid a repeat of the dual strikes of 2023. The onset of AI has also coincided with a period of austerity for many large producers and studios, which are also contending with consolidation and ongoing challenges facing legacy media.
By creating a new paradigm that differs from the green-screen approach of many top-end productions, Erwin says Innovative Dreams is reaffirming the importance of human actors and foregrounding their performances. (Ben Kingsley and O-T Fagbenle, stars of The Old Stories: Moses, a Wonder Project limited series coming to Prime Video later this spring, recently joined Erwin for a behind-the-scenes look at the new production method. Watch it HERE.)
Moses is the first project to utilize the new workflow and was shot entirely on a virtual stage. It was written, directed and executive produced by Erwin. After debuting exclusively on Wonder’s subscription service on Prime Video in the U.S. this spring, it will then come to Prime Video.
“We are excited to pioneer what we believe is the industry’s first final pixel, gen-AI-enabled, production-ready workflow applied at scale,” Erwin said in a statement. “We’re passionate about human collaboration and creativity, preserving the brilliance of actors’ performances, and bringing jobs back to L.A. I cannot wait for other filmmakers to experience the magic of what we’re building.”
Innovative Dreams is set up as a standalone business within Wonder Project’s studio division. Along with its parent, the company plans to work with third-party studios across various genres and budget levels. It operates a dedicated R&D lab and virtual production stage at the MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach, CA. establishing a physical hub where filmmakers can work with this full suite of tools under one roof.
The facility is designed to support in-person collaboration and hands-on experimentation, and will serve as both a production space and an education hub for filmmakers, showrunners and producers. By anchoring this work in Los Angeles, Innovative Dreams and its backers said in a launch announcement they aim to “bring more productions back to American stages and strengthen the local crew, stage and production ecosystem that has defined Hollywood for a century.”
Luma, which raised $900 million last November in Series C funding, has a number of blue-chip investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund. It is contributing technology to Innovative Dreams like its recently unveiled Luma Agents, which are customizable, production-grade AI tools.
“The production landscape is evolving, and filmmakers are looking for more ways to take creative swings. Innovative Dreams is that opportunity,” Luma CEO Amit Jain said in a statement. “Together with Jon and team, we are building a new hybrid production process that brings Luma’s powerful generative AI technologies into high quality production. Realtime Hybrid Filmmaking is an efficient, enjoyable, and human-centered approach. This process will liberate filmmakers to do their best work and make things people want to watch.”
Added Samira Panah Bakhtiar, GM of Media & Entertainment, Games and Sports for AWS, “The entertainment industry is at an inflection point, and the most exciting part is that technology is finally catching up to the imagination of filmmakers.” What Erwin and his team, she continued, are building – “with AWS cloud and AI infrastructure at its core – shows that AI, when used responsibly, can expand creative possibilities without replacing the human performance and artistry that make stories resonate.”
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