It would appear that the forthcoming Avengers movie is not the only Doomsday upon us. As when speaking to Vanity Fair in promotion of his upcoming movie, Ink, the story of Larry Lamb and Rupert Murdoch’s scandalous Sun newspaper rise, at the Telluride Film Festival, which also played — and premiered — at the Venice Film Festival just days earlier, The 28 Days Later director not only confirmed our fears that Ink utilised generative AI — following this now revised tweet from X user @LukeHearfield, who suspected the movie’s use of the tool following the Venice premiere, of the which they were in attendance; kicking up concern amongst those online with a stake in the ethics of filmmaking and the work of Danny Boyle, leading the user to revise his initial claims of AI to “Either AI or very lousy CGI”, obviously now being vindicated in their out-of-the-theatre gut feeling in light of Boyle’s admittance — but also that he sees AI as “A very useful tool.” Is it over? Is the end nigh? 

Boyle, who has long been revered as one of Britain’s most forward-thinking and inventive filmmakers — see his usage of iPhones in his previous flick, 28 Years Later, or his brilliantly resourceful post-apocalyptic, consumer-grade footage shot on the Canon XL1 for the series’ low-budget originator, 28 Days Later — now looks to have pushed the boat out a touch too far with AI generated mice for The Sun Newspaper’s newsroom, and to animate “A couple of old photographs”. The ship is, in fact, sinking.

His confirmation of the use of generative AI in his upcoming effort is maybe not as surprising as it should be, given the state of current situation in this world — which edges closer and closer to the one depicted in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men each day. But still, it hurts. It hurts to see a filmmaker who we know is capable of greatness without the need to fall back on a “tool” which continues to destroy the world one prompt at a time. I hope those mice were worth it, Danny, the temperature probably just raised a few degrees because of it. 

Boyle stated in that same interview that “It doesn’t really matter what I think about AI, it matters what 20-year-olds think about it”. Though I’m not quite 20 years old anymore — 23, actually — It’s safe to assume that Boyle was making a general statement about the young people of the world — Gen Z, in particular, you would imagine — and their, presumably in his mind, positive relationship with artificial intelligence. And so I’d like to take this moment to clear something up for Danny, and speak, if not on behalf of my entire generation, then at least for those with an even halfway artistic inclination: We DON’T want it. We continue to reject it. “AI slop”, as we like to call it, continues to have no place in the arts as far as Gen Z — who continue to be the most active cinemagoing generation — are concerned. 

Our generation has it as hard as it’s been in quite some time. Jobs are scarce, the property ladder is out of reach, and we’ve grown up almost entirely seeing the world through the lens of an iPhone; it’s created an army of modern-day Luddites. Vinyl is BACK. Owning your favourite movies physically is IN. Print media is COOL. And most of all, handmade movies are all the rage. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but we all went to see The Odyssey, Obsession and Backrooms this year. And then we went again. And again. And again. There’s a reason for that: In a world of elders attempting to deprive us of it, we appreciate human-created work.

The good news is that there is still time. Ink doesn’t land worldwide for a few months yet, January 8th is when the movie is set to land on Netflix, plenty of time to pay a real artist to animate some mice and an image of Margaret Thatcher. 

Boyle also stated that he “Got in trouble with PETA” (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for the usage of chimps in 28 Days Later, “You won’t do that again” they said, according to Boyle — and he hasn’t. I implore the man to take that same lesson and apply it here. Refill the Ink and save what looks to be a dwindling disaster, for if not, a potentially pulsating newsroom thriller could face a quick, widely-ignored death at the hands of a generation sick of laziness. Do the right thing, Danny. We beg of you.