Inside the AI startup refining Hollywood — one f-bomb at a time

Hollywood is notorious for its glut of celebrities, but Tinseltown strictly controls one scandalous privilege: swearing.

Director Scott Mann encountered these limitations after filming the thriller. Fall. Film giant Lionsgate, best known for John Wick, SawAnd The Hunger Games franchise – wanted to release the film in the United States. But the studio had big problems. There are thirty-six to be exact.

“They said there was too much crap,” Mann told TNW during a video call from Los Angeles.

All these bombs were pushing Fall towards an R rating, which will reduce the potential audience. To provide PG-13 needed to expand its reach, and these strong language had to be dropped.

Easier said than done. Reshoots would cost a fortune, and the magic of post-production would not be able to erase the dirty words. Luckily, Mann had one more trick up his sleeve. In silence, the British director created a startup called Irreproachable — which develops video editing tools using artificial intelligence. Fall provided a new field test: replacing bombs with softer epithets.

Mann asked the actors to record cleaner chatter. Once the sound was ready, the Flawless system went to work. Software transforms actors’ faces for the first time in a 3D model. Neural networks then analyzed and reconstructed the performances. Facial expressions and lip movements were synchronized with the new dialogue.

The experiment was successful. All 36 bombs were replaced without a trace. Well, almost everything. “I ended up doing one hell of a thing,” Mann says. “Apparently I’m allowed one sex.”

Satisfied with his restraint, the rating commission gave Fall cherished PG-13. The film became a hit and collected box office revenue. reported $21 million on a budget of only $3 million. The sequel is currently filming in Thailand.

Encouraged by his success, Mann began commercializing the software. Latest version – DeepEditor, AI a tool that enhances dialogue and performance.

Studio system

DeepEditor can trim lines, insert pauses, or change delivery times. It can even copy and paste performances from one frame to another. All outputs provide Hollywood-grade 4K resolution, 16-bit color depth and ACES color space.

Early access applications for this tool are now open. The full release of the product is scheduled for the first half of this year.

“Where people shoot is already changing,” Mann says. “And as it expands, I think it will completely change the way we make movies.”

It’s also not the only tool Mann wants to transform films with. About ten years ago, he began developing another artificial intelligence system for film production. Like DeepEditor, he started life on a Hollywood film set.

Big break

After film school, British television and short films, Mann achieved big success in Hollywood in 2014. Lionsgate offered him the director’s chair for a crime thriller. Robbery. The project also featured a star-studded cast led by Robert De Niro.

Mann enjoyed the experience. “It was a complete privilege. We were very close to the film and very happy with the English version. But then I saw a foreign translation of the film.”

Mann was “horrified” by the dubbing. His script was rewritten, and the actors’ gestures were modified. He discovered that the culprit had spread throughout the industry.

The problem arose from the established translation process in Hollywood. When dubbing films, scripts are usually rewritten to match the original mouth movements. If the new lines still don’t match the old gestures, the voice actors try synchronize them by turning their feed in unnatural directions. Results vary from funny as hell.

“It’s very bad for the filmmakers and the actors because it’s not an authentic representation of their work,” Mann says. “And as far as experience goes, you’re not immersed if it’s not in sync.”

Mann began to explore new dubbing methods. He examined head scans, but the rendering lacked realism. The dub simply moved from one uncanny valley to another.

Having lost faith in existing visual effects, Mann began looking outside the film industry. He soon came across a promising alternative: Deep video portraits.

Hollywood meets GenAI

Introduced in 2018, Deep Video Portraits was a major breakthrough for the nascent generative artificial intelligence sector. This method allows for photorealistic reconstruction of faces using only the input video. Every facial gesture and lip movement can be synchronized with speech.

The realistic results stunned observers, including Mann. “It blew my mind,” he says.

Mann approached the research team. They agreed to collaborate on a new technical test: getting De Niro’s character to speak German.

The transformation, Mann said, was “like magic.”

“It was really understanding how a certain actor could say a certain line… You keep the game, but you can change the timing.”

Mann believed that this technique was ideal for Hollywood. To turn this idea into a business, he sought advice from Nick Lines, a technology industry veteran. Together, the duo co-founded Flawless in 2018.

The startup’s first product was TrueSync, a dubbing tool that studios use for Hollywood films. Among them there are Venom: The Last DanceMarvel blockbuster released last year.

Flawless also demonstrated hissing coil AI-translated trailers at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. However, not every client is ready to boast about the results.

Threatening actions

As the premiere of “Fall” approached, Lionsgate became concerned. At the time, the term GenAI was still new, but unions were already concerned about the threats to performers. The studio feared that the film’s visual dubbing would cause a backlash.

“They were going to pull the release if the issue hadn’t been cleared with the Screen Actors Guild and there would have been a lot of nerves,” recalls Mann. “But fortunately we have planned consent workflows and [rights protections] early”.

Flawless built his plan on several pillars. All data will be obtained from legitimate sources and not copied without permission, as many GenAI companies do. Each output will be completely cleared of rights. The acting will remain true to the original game. Any significant changes will require additional consent.

launch also limited the operation of the system. “We often call our models ‘narrow models,’” Mann says. “They are big, but they are focused on a specific aspect and selected for a specific purpose. They are very targeted and based on clean data that can be used for this purpose.”

Flawless presented the plan to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). “They approved the proposal,” Mann says. In August 2022, Fall was released in the United States. The film and dub were a great success.

Just a few months later, GenAI went mainstream. The reason was the November launch ChatGPT. Wave of image, text and audio generators watched closely in his footsteps. Suddenly, AI threats to actors, artists, and copyrights became a public concern.

One more take

In July 2023, the actors union SAG-AFTRA began the longest strike in its history. One of the guild’s main concerns was the threat posed by AI.

After months of intense negotiations, the union reached an agreement with leading Hollywood companies. Under agreementany digital changes will require explicit consent—unless they are “substantially inconsistent with the script, performance and/or recording.”

Mann welcomed these conditions. They will not restrict lip-syncing when dubbing in a foreign language, but will enforce strict consent requirements for any significant changes to the script or performances.

The new regulations have opened up business opportunities for Flawless. By supporting union rules, the startup hopes to quickly gain traction in Hollywood.

A month after the SAG-AFTRA strike began, Flawless unveiled a new rights management platform. The system, called Artistic Rights Treasury (ART), shares edits generated by artificial intelligence with artists. If the actor approves of the changes, they can give their consent in the app. If they don’t like the new versions, they can submit their own variations.

ART is now built into DeepEditor. Mann believes the combination of AI editing and security tools creates a unique product. “DeepEditor will be the first legitimate enterprise AI solution on the market,” he says. “Everything else is riddled with contradictions and rights issues.”

A better future for Hollywood?

Mann expects GenAI to open up endless possibilities for filmmakers over time. It involves reducing costs, reducing routine work and lowering barriers to entry. If all goes according to plan, Hollywood will regain its appetite for originality.

“The key to the prosperity of this industry is innovation—and responsible innovation,” says Mann.

But even he has a lot to learn about how to work responsibly. During production for Fall In the sequel, Mann faced a familiar problem.

“I accidentally wrote too much nonsense again,” he sighs. “We needed to talk: We’re allowed one sex, so let’s use it wisely.”