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Darren Aronofsky has launched Primordial Soup, a new venture he’s positioning as empowering filmmakers with AI-based creative tools.
Primordial Soup forged a partnership with Google DeepMind’s AI research team, and together they are working with three filmmakers to produce short films. Under the partnership, Google DeepMind is providing early-stage access to generative-AI video tools; conversely, the filmmakers are expected to provide feedback to the tech company on the new AI tools to help guide their development.
The first of Primordial Soup’s projects is Eliza McNitt’s “Ancestra,” which uses a mix of live-action performances and AI-based visuals, set to premiere next month at the Tribeca Festival. Primordial Soup’s two other films are in development. Details about those are TBA but both will use new applications of Veo, Google DeepMind’s video-generation model.
Aronofsky said his aim with the company is to ensure that AI serves as a creative tool for filmmakers — and not a replacement for traditional filmmaking. He’s the director of films including “Pi,” “Requiem for a Dream” and “mother!” More recently, he pioneered the use of an 18K camera rig for “Postcard From Earth,” which premiered Las Vegas’ Sphere in 2023.
“Filmmaking has always been driven by technology,” Aronofsky said in a statement. “After the Lumiere brothers and Edison’s ground-breaking invention, filmmakers unleashed the hidden storytelling power of cameras. Later technological breakthroughs — sound, color, VFX — allowed us to tell stories in ways that couldn’t be told before. Today is no different. Now is the moment to explore these new tools and shape them for the future of storytelling.”
The news was among of series of AI-related announcements made Tuesday at the kickoff of the Google I/O developers conference, including real-time speech translation coming to Google Meet videoconferences and an “AI Mode” a tab in Google Search. The tech giant also announced Flow, a new AI filmmaking tool designed for the Veo generative video model, which Google claims provides “stunning cinematic outputs that excel at physics and realism.” The company said filmmakers it has been working with on Flow include Dave Clark, Henry Daubrez and Junie Lau.
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, said about the partnership with Aronofsky’s start-up, “Primordial Soup’s spirit of experimentation and technological exploration makes them the perfect partner to help thoughtfully bring in a new era of AI-assisted storytelling.”
More info on Primordial Soup (a term Aronofsky used in his director’s statement about horror film “mother!”) is at this link.
McNitt’s “Ancestra” film is “a deeply personal narrative inspired by the day she was born,” according to Primordial Soup. Here’s the logline: “When childbirth spirals into crisis, a mother’s love becomes a cosmic force to save her daughter’s life.” “Ancestra” will debut at the Tribeca Festival on June 13, 2025, followed by a panel with the filmmakers moderated by Aronofsky.
McNitt’s work has included “Spheres,” touted as a groundbreaking VR experience executive produced by Aronofsky, featuring Millie Bobby Brown, Jessica Chastain and Patti Smith as “the multigenerational voices of the cosmos.” The project was the first-ever VR acquisition out of Sundance in 2018.
“With ‘Ancestra,’ I was able to visualize the unseen, transforming family archives, emotions and science into a cinematic experience that feels both intimate and expansive,” McNitt said in a statement.
According to Primordial Soup, McNitt’s film blends performances by SAG-AFTRA actors and “full film crew production” with AI-generated imagery, depicting things like “cosmic events and microscopic worlds.” The AI-generated elements were shaped by McNitt’s personal biography, including a newborn infant modeled from her own baby pictures and a visual style patterned on photographs taken by her late father.
In the making of “Ancestra,” traditional artists (including animators, VFX specialists, concept artists and storyboard artists) collaborated closely with Google DeepMind researchers, according to the companies. “By training models on original concept art and hand-drawn storyboards, the [collaborative process] preserves emotional continuity and artistic integrity, ensuring ethical AI implementation that upholds the filmmaker’s vision,” they said.
Watch the teaser trailer for “Ancestra”:
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