A feature film with a budget of $70 million that prominently features Bitcoin and stars Casey Affleck is being produced using artificial intelligence, as reported by The Wrap. Directed by ‘Bourne Identity’ filmmaker Doug Liman, the movie ‘Bitcoin: Killing Satoshi’ boasts an ensemble cast including Gal Gadot, Isla Fisher, and Pete Davidson.
The thriller delves into the enigma of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, weaving a narrative across diverse global settings. Despite its international scope, filming did not occur on location. Instead, all scenes were captured in what is known as ‘the gray box,’ a converted car showroom wrapped in a gray screen.
Producer Ryan Kavanaugh explained to The Wrap that the decision to employ AI was made early in production. After calculating the impracticality of a $300 million budget for real-world shooting, the team opted to utilize available AI technologies to reduce costs significantly.
Within ‘the gray box,’ settings and lighting were generated using AI, while genuine actor performances remained unaltered. “The performance is captured uniquely with our AI protocols,” Kavanaugh elaborated. “This allows the AI to construct all elements within the confines of each scene’s frame based on the actors’ performances.”
Set for presentation at the upcoming Cannes International Film Festival, ‘Bitcoin: Killing Satoshi’ arrives amid renewed interest in uncovering Bitcoin’s creator. Recently, a New York Times exposé implicated Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream and prominent Bitcoin figure, as Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Back refuted these assertions, dismissing them as coincidental correlations.
In 2024, the HBO documentary ‘Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery’ suggested that BTC core developer Peter Todd was actually Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim Todd has denied. Concurrently, another film titled ‘Finding Satoshi’ aims to reveal the identity of Bitcoin’s creator and is slated for release next week.
The elusive founder of Bitcoin vanished from online platforms in 2011, two years post-launch. According to Arkham Intelligence data, they reportedly possess close to 1.1 million BTC, valued at approximately $81 billion today. Presently, Bitcoin has seen a slight increase, trading around $74,900 after rising by 0.7% over the past day, yet remains significantly below its peak of $126,080 from last October.