Earlier this month, Amazon shared that it would be testing AI-assisted dubbing on some of its Spanish-language programming on Prime Video. Now, AI-assisted dubbing is already making its way to some movie theaters, albeit in a slightly different way than Prime’s use for it.
AMC Theaters will premiere the Swedish film Watch The Skies with AI-dubbing. However, the use will be visual, rather than sonic. Though originally recorded with Swedish audio, the film will feature its original actors rerecording the dialogue in English, and AI will tweak the actors’ mouths to more accurately match the sounds the characters are now making. Because the actors have consented to rerecord their lines, the endeavor does not violate union rules, per a report in Gizmodo.
The company behind the project is called Flawless AI, and they call the resulting film “vubbed,” or visual dubbed. The company also shared a video showing off the tech and preempting some of the criticism they assume is coming their way.
In the brief clips we see in the reel, the tech admittedly doesn’t look terrible (especially compared to some recent AI upscaling), though it’s definitely the kind of thing you can’t stop looking at once you’re aware of it. “A lot of filmmakers and a lot of actors will be afraid of this technology at first,” says writer/director Victor Danell. “But we have the creative control, and to act out the film in English was a real exciting experience.” Danell cites the potential for a film to find a larger audience outside of its home country than it may with a traditional dub or with subtitles. However, it would also seem that the tech is predicated on the cast already being able to speak English; if they wanted to redub the film in Mandarin or Spanish to reach other major global markets, they may have to hire someone else to do the talking.
Per Variety, AMC has committed 100 screens in 20 cities to show Watch The Skies. It officially rolls out Stateside on May 9.
