EXCLUSIVE: Hold onto your crypto. This could get interesting.
It turns out Doug Liman's much-discussed AI-enabled satire Bitcoin, starring Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, Gal Gadot, and Isla Fisher, will also feature some well-known supporting characters.
Versions of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Eric Trump are set to populate the movie. The film follows a man's quest to prove he created Bitcoin, a claim that puts his life in peril and sets off a high-stakes race between tech billionaires and world leaders with the financial system hanging in the balance.
We understand Bezos, Zuckerberg, et al. have initially been portrayed by actors on camera, but the performances will likely undergo some level of AI enhancement to better resemble the real figures. Approvals from those actors for AI changes have already been agreed, according to previous casting notices.
Zuckerberg reportedly has the most lines among the public figures, while Eric Trump, the businessman and crypto proponent second son of President Trump, will be featured hawking “Trump coin” and in one scene is depicted in the orbit of a stripper. There will also be a fleeting nod to Elon Musk.
None of the figures are main characters, but the team has done plenty of due diligence with lawyers, leaning into the project as satire, similar to SNL or South Park. Either way, a much-discussed project has added more lightning rods to its armory.
The project has generated headlines for its prominent use of AI. The movie will employ a “markerless performative capture stage” instead of any location shooting and was shot in only 20 days. According to Liman, the AI tech means the film can be made at a still hefty $70 million rather than $200–300 million.
For its AI, the filmmakers are tapping into producer Ryan Kavanaugh’s proprietary AI within his ACME AI label, as well as Liman’s proprietary PECAN (Performance Capture Animation) process. The film is understood to align with the AI guidelines of the Hollywood guilds.
The film sees Hollywood vet Liman reconnect with Oscar winner Affleck, who stars as computer scientist Craig Wright. Wright has publicly claimed to be the main part of the team that created Bitcoin and the identity behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. However, in 2024, the British High Court ruled that Wright is not Nakamoto and must stop claiming he is.
The film is in post-production, with Patrick Wachsberger’s 193 selling at the Cannes market.
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