Ben Affleck got a hefty boost to his reported $150million fortune when Netflix acquired his AI start-up company InterPositive last week.
On Wednesday, an insider told Bloomberg that the 53-year-old movie star-turned-senior adviser and his investors will earn up to $600million from the streaming giant as long as it meets ‘certain performance targets.’
In a statement, Affleck said he ‘couldn’t be happier’ with the Netflix deal after quietly founding the LA-based company in 2022 with a 16-person team of engineers, researchers and creatives.
‘InterPositive is a tool that’s designed to solve the specific problems that I’d encountered as a filmmaker that connect you more to the filmmaking,’ the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker said in a Netflix video.
‘It’s not about text prompting or generating something from nothing. You’re building a model from your own material. That’s how this works. You have to create your movie essentially first before you can really build your model around your movie using AI.’
Ben Affleck got a hefty boost to his reported $150million fortune when Netflix acquired his AI start-up company InterPositive last week (pictured January 13)
Affleck wanted to ‘take out all the logistical, difficult, technical stuff that often gets in the way.’
‘You can use your own model to remove the wires on stunts, reframe a shot, get a shot you missed, shape the lighting, enhance the backgrounds,’ The Rip producer-star said.
‘If you can take some of those problems out, yes you can do it more quickly, you can do it more easily, you’re giving more choice, you’re giving more opportunity, you’re getting more episodes of your favorite shows, you’re getting more human work.’
Affleck stressed that their goal is ‘to preserve what makes storytelling human’ and defended that they’ll do so from their shared ‘values’ and Netflix’s ‘responsibility with applying and scaling technology.’
And since 2022, the Dunkin’ brand ambassador has also kept busy running independent artist-led studio, The Artists Equity, with his childhood friend Matt Damon and Gerry Cardinale of RedBirdCapital.
The Boston besties – who are 10th cousins once removed – originally met as neighbors in Cambridge, MA before co-writing their Oscar-winning screenplay for Gus Van Sant’s 1997 drama Good Will Hunting.
Last month, Deadline reported that Affleck and Damon will executive produce Tom McCarthy’s untitled darkly comic drama for Sony Classics starring Paul Rudd, Evan Peters, Amy Ryan, Paul Giamatti and Tatiana Maslany.
On Wednesday, an insider told Bloomberg that the 53-year-old movie star-turned-senior adviser and his investors will earn up to $600 million from the streaming giant as long as it meets ‘certain performance targets’
In a statement, Affleck said he ‘couldn’t be happier’ with the Netflix deal after quietly founding the LA-based company in 2022 with a 16-person team of engineers, researchers and creatives
‘InterPositive is a tool that’s designed to solve the specific problems that I’d encountered as a filmmaker that connect you more to the filmmaking,’ the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker said in a Netflix video
‘It’s not about text prompting or generating something from nothing. You’re building a model from your own material. That’s how this works. You have to create your movie essentially first before you can really build your model around your movie using AI’
Affleck added: ‘You can use your own model to remove the wires on stunts, reframe a shot, get a shot you missed, shape the lighting, enhance the backgrounds’
The Rip producer-star stressed that their goal is ‘to preserve what makes storytelling human’ and defended that they’ll do so from their shared ‘values’ and Netflix’s ‘responsibility with applying and scaling technology’
The Kiss of the Spider Woman producer recently shot his sixth feature directorial effort Animals – which he co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in as LA Mayoral candidate Milo Bradford.
The Netflix hostage thriller also features Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington and Steven Yeun.
Affleck previously helmed Gone Baby Gone (2007), The Town (2010), Argo (2012), Live by Night (2016) and Air (2023).