From Script to Screen in Seconds: Former Amazon Exec and BAFTA Nominee Launch AI Platform for Cinema
On May 10, 2026, in the midst of the Cannes Film Festival, the world was introduced to CineMe — a platform that promises to upend the traditional filmmaking process. Behind the project are two people who know the industry from both sides: British documentary filmmaker Dan Hartley and Chris Bird, who spent 15 years leading Amazon Prime Video UK.Not Just Another Image Generator
Another neural network that creates pretty posters from a text prompt surprises no one today. CineMe positions itself differently from the start. It is not a tool for a lone enthusiast, but a fully-fledged digital studio for collaborative visual development of films. The target audience is the entire creative team: producers, directors, cinematographers, production designers, costume and location specialists, and VFX teams.
The main feature the creators talk about sounds almost fantastical. The platform takes a finished script and, in a matter of seconds, turns it into a photorealistic storyboard. What used to take days and weeks of an artist’s work can now be obtained instantly, allowing filmmakers to visualize the future film before shooting begins.Who Is Behind the Project
The founders’ backgrounds explain the startup’s ambitions.
Dan Hartley is a documentary filmmaker nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy for the film David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, the story of Harry Potter’s stunt double. He is responsible for CineMe’s creative vision. According to Hartley, the idea was born from a sense of frustration: he too often saw how barriers to accessing technology killed the creative potential of independent filmmakers. His mission is to break down those barriers.
Chris Bird is the man who led Amazon Prime Video in the UK for 15 years, having previously launched the LoveFilm service. He understands the economics of streaming, the value of efficiency, and how to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. At CineMe, Bird oversees technological strategy and business expertise.What the Platform Already Does and What’s Next
CineMe is currently in beta testing, with several unnamed “high-budget” projects participating. What is known about the platform’s current capabilities:
- Automatic storyboard generation based on script text.
- A collaborative workspace for the entire creative team to work on the visual world of a picture.
On the roadmap is the introduction of generative VFX capabilities. According to the developers’ vision, in the future, CineMe will be able to create complex visual effects entirely through AI: explosions, destruction, large-scale battle scenes.Five Percent to Protect Freelancers
The project’s social component deserves special attention. Simultaneously with the platform’s launch, the founders announced the creation of a charitable foundation, the CineMe Future Fund, to which 5% of the company is being donated outright.
The stated goal of the fund is to provide access to corporate-level AI tools for creative industry workers, especially freelancers. Hartley and Bird emphasize that this category of professionals has proven most vulnerable to industry disruptions, be it the pandemic or the Hollywood strikes. The fund is intended to serve as a kind of insurance policy for the future.Context: Cannes, Computex, and the Future of Film
The launch of CineMe takes place against the backdrop of an active discussion about the role of AI in filmmaking. Just days ago in China, directors and producers debated whether a neural network could replace the human soul on screen. Meanwhile, Taiwan is preparing for Computex 2026, where one of the central themes will be “Physical AI” — robots and automation.
In this context, CineMe looks like a practical answer to the theoretical debates. The platform’s creators do not speculate about whether AI will replace humans. They simply offer a tool and say: “Try it.” The company is soon expected to announce the names of key project advisors from the worlds of film, technology, and investment. Perhaps those names will ultimately determine whether CineMe becomes a new industry standard or remains a curious experiment