Hollywood is Freaking Out About AI

Every single person in Hollywood is nervous right now.

I know because I just spoke at a major Hollywood conference centered on AI.

The studios didn’t want predictions. They wanted to know: How do we stop this? Are we going to be OK?

And now—in my latest podcast episode—I’ve spoken to two people actually building the future Hollywood is afraid of.

Last week, I sat down with Tye Sheridan (you know him as Cyclops in X-Men, and the lead in Ready Player One) and Nikola Todorovic, his co-founder of Wonder Dynamics—a company so good Autodesk literally bought them.

(Link to the full conversation below.)

What struck me first: They didn’t start their company to disrupt Hollywood. They started it because writing their own films kept getting too expensive.

Meet the Two Guys Accidentally Rewriting Hollywood

Tye has been acting since age 12.

Cast out of 10,000 kids for Tree of Life, chosen by Terrence Malick, landed in Spielberg’s office nervously chatting about a $10,000 VR experiment he built with Nikola…

And then Spielberg cast him in Ready Player One.

Nikola has been a visual-effects guy since college.

One of those guys who can hack together 360° video with ten GoPros before VR headsets even existed.

They wanted to make a VFX-heavy sci-fi movie, but it was too expensive.

So instead of lowering the ambition of their script… they built a company that can reduce their costs by 90%.

Together, they created Wonder Dynamics—a pipeline that lets small teams do what used to require hundreds of artists and $150 million budgets.

Spielberg loved it. Autodesk bought it. Hollywood is freaking out about it.

The Big Question: Is Hollywood Dead?

I asked them directly: "Is Hollywood about to get replaced by kids in their bedrooms with AI?"

Their answer wasn’t doomer. It was actually optimistic—and complicated.

Here’s what changes:

• VFX costs collapse from $100M → $10M.
• Small teams can now make scenes that used to require entire studios.
• Actors still matter. Real performances still matter. Humans still prefer humans.
• But the “middle” of the industry—the $50M tier—gets eaten first.

But AI can’t replace a great story. It’s not going to replace a real performance either. It can’t bypass the audience’s BS detector. And AI isn’t replacing human creativity.

Nikola said this: “People don’t pay for something that took a week to make. They pay for something that feels impossible.”

He’s right. You don’t watch Inception wondering how long it took; you watch it because it feels like magic.

AI doesn't kill magic. It kills inefficiency.

Why Studios Don’t Go Away

You know what studios do have? Marketing budgets.

And just like the music industry, we’re heading into an era where:

• Content floods the world
• Tools democratize everything
• But discovery becomes impossible without a megaphone

Studios = the megaphone.

Also… if someone is going to invent the next Avatar-level leap, who has the resources to build that? Disney. Warner. Universal.

AI lifts the floor. Studios raise the ceiling.

That’s the paradox.

Five Big Takeaways

1. AI doesn’t replace filmmakers — it replaces excuses.

Small teams can make sci-fi now. Real sci-fi.

 No more “we cut that scene for budget reasons.”

2. The indie world is about to explode.

The $2,500 YouTube dramas → full-blown visual universes.

3. Bad storytelling can’t hide behind big budgets anymore.

Lazy writing becomes unforgivable once anyone can make beautiful shots.

4. VFX houses survive by embracing AI, not fighting it.

Budgets are shrinking. Expectations aren’t. Tools like theirs become existential.

5. The biggest threat to Hollywood isn’t AI—it's geography.

Productions are leaving LA. Canada, Europe, Asia… places with tax credits are stealing the jobs. The industry is decentralizing.

What’s Next?

Tye has a new film (“The Housewives” with Naomi Watts). Nikola is leading AI at Autodesk and rolling out insane new tools like text-to-3D and AI-driven animation.

Together, they still plan to make the movie they wrote years ago.

And Hollywood is still figuring out how to adapt.

No, AI isn’t killing Hollywood. It’s rebooting it. And, in the end, this is a very good thing.

Listen to the full episode with Tye and Nikola here.