Amazon‑Backed AI Startup Fable Plans to Recreate Lost Orson Welles Footage
Key Points
- Fable, an AI startup backed by Amazon’s Alexa Fund, aims to digitally reconstruct the missing footage of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons.
- The company has not secured the film’s rights and did not inform the Welles estate before announcing the project.
- Filmmaker Brian Rose, with five years of prior work on the film, will lead the effort using a new AI model capable of generating long narratives.
- The plan blends AI‑generated scenes with traditional reshoots and digital face‑swaps of original cast members.
- Estate representative David Reeder called the venture an “attempt to generate publicity” and a “purely mechanical exercise.”
- The estate has previously embraced AI to create a voice model for commercial voice‑over work.
- Critics argue that any AI‑driven reconstruction will be a new creation, not a true restoration of Welles’s original vision.
Fable, an AI startup funded by Amazon’s Alexa Fund, announced a project to digitally reconstruct the missing portions of Orson Welles’s 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons. The company, which describes itself as a “Netflix of AI,” has not secured the film’s rights and has drawn criticism from the estate that manages Welles’s legacy. Filmmaker Brian Rose will lead the effort using a new AI model capable of generating long narratives, blending AI‑generated scenes with traditional reshoots and digital face swaps. The estate’s representative called the venture a purely mechanical exercise and noted that the family has already embraced AI for voice‑over work.
Background on Fable and Its AI Platform
Fable positions itself as a “Netflix of AI,” offering a platform where users can create cartoons and other visual content from text prompts. The startup recently raised capital from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, underscoring its connection to a major technology investor.
Beyond its cartoon‑making tools, Fable has been used to generate unauthorized episodes of existing shows such as South Park. The company is now launching a new AI model designed to produce long, complex narratives, which it intends to apply to a Hollywood‑level project.
Ambitious Plan to Recreate The Magnificent Ambersons
The focal point of the announcement is an effort to digitally reconstruct the lost 43 minutes of Orson Welles’s classic film The Magnificent Ambersons. The project will span the next two years and will be led by filmmaker Brian Rose, who has already spent five years working to digitally reconstruct Welles’s original vision.
Rose intends to use Fable’s new AI model to generate the missing footage, combining AI‑generated sequences with traditional filmmaking techniques. Some scenes will be reshot with contemporary actors, whose faces will then be swapped for digital recreations of the original cast.
Legal and Ethical Concerns
Fable has not obtained the rights to The Magnificent Ambersons, and the estate that manages Orson Welles’s legacy was not consulted before the announcement. David Reeder, who handles the estate for Welles’s daughter Beatrice, described the project to Variety as an “attempt to generate publicity on the back of Welles’ creative genius” and warned that it would amount to “a purely mechanical exercise without any of the uniquely innovative thinking [of] a creative force like Welles.”
Reeder also noted that the estate has embraced AI technology to create a voice model intended for voice‑over work with brands, indicating a nuanced stance toward AI‑driven media.
Technical Vision and Limitations
Rose expressed particular sorrow over the loss of a four‑minute moving‑camera shot, of which only 50 seconds remain in the recut version of the film. He believes that recreating the missing material could honor Welles’s original intent, even though the original footage is considered lost forever unless a new discovery is made.
The hybrid approach—mixing AI‑generated imagery with reshot scenes and digital face swaps—aims to produce a version of the film that approximates Welles’s vision, though critics argue that such a reconstruction would inevitably be a new creation rather than a true restoration of the original work.
Industry Reaction
The announcement has sparked debate about the role of AI in film restoration and the importance of securing intellectual‑property rights before undertaking such projects. While Fable’s technical ambition is notable, the lack of rights clearance and the estate’s objections highlight the complex legal and ethical landscape surrounding AI‑generated recreations of classic cinema.