A Fully AI-Generated ‘The Odyssey’ Movie Is Officially Happening
An AI-generated version of Homer’s The Odyssey is officially on the way, adding another adaptation of the famous Greek epic to an already crowded year. While Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is preparing for its theatrical release, a completely different take on the story is being created with artificial intelligence.
Titled Odysseus: The Fall, the upcoming film comes from AI film studio Fountain 0 and filmmaker Ash Koosha. The 135-minute movie is an AI-generated adaptation centered on the legendary Greek hero Odysseus. It is expected to be available to rent or buy through Fountain 0’s website later this summer.
The project comes from Koosha, who also directed the AI-generated documentary-drama Dreams of Violets, which focuses on the recent Iranian protests and premiered at the Tribeca Festival. According to Koosha, The Odyssey has been a personal passion of his since childhood, and he wanted to create his own version of the story after years of reading different interpretations.
“I’ve been just obsessed with it since I was a kid,” Koosha said in an interview. “One of the things that really drove me towards this story was the character of Odysseus himself, and my take on it — the feeling that I’ve had over the years reading different takes on it, and different translations — and my take was something that I just wanted to tell.”
Koosha explained that the timing felt right because of the current interest surrounding AI filmmaking and the larger conversations happening around the technology. The announcement of Odysseus: The Fall also arrives during the marketing push for Nolan’s much larger Hollywood adaptation, although the two films are not connected.
Tom Rogers, executive chairman of Fountain 0 and an executive producer on the project, explained that the goal was not to compete with traditional filmmaking but to show how quickly AI could allow creators to respond to cultural moments.
“We tried with ‘Dreams’ to very much show that an AI-generated film was able to create something … at the speed of news,” Rogers said. “To be able to produce something at speed that allows you to contribute to it gives everybody a sense that you can participate in creating film with speed in a way that it really contributes to it.”
Odysseus: The Fall was created using the AI video generator Kling. Instead of following a traditional screenplay process, Koosha worked from notes and continued changing ideas during production. He said the flexibility allowed him to experiment without the usual limits of a traditional film set.
The movie also used AI-generated versions of human performers. Twelve people provided their likenesses for the project, including models, a professional actress, people outside the entertainment industry, and Rogers himself. Koosha used his own likeness as the model for Odysseus.
According to Rogers, using AI versions of performers created new possibilities for directing. He explained that guiding an AI model based on a person’s appearance could sometimes be easier than directing someone with little acting experience.
“In the case of somebody like me, with zero acting experience, it’s infinitely easier for Ash to direct me through my image and a model than it would be to direct me live,” Rogers said. However, Rogers was also realistic about how the film compares to Nolan’s upcoming blockbuster. “I don’t think anybody is going to think this film is better than Nolan’s film,” he admitted.
Instead, the team sees Odysseus: The Fall as a demonstration of what AI filmmaking can become. Koosha believes AI should eventually be viewed as another tool for storytelling rather than something separate from traditional movies.
Would You Watch an AI-Generated Movie Like 'Odysseus: The Fall'?
“I don’t think it’s a question of putting traditional film versus AI film,” Koosha said. “When we move past the point where AI is surrounded with so much discourse, and when we ignore the fact that AI is this sort of alien thing, then it becomes about the stories.”
As audiences prepare for multiple versions of The Odyssey, Koosha’s AI adaptation will offer a very different look at how technology may shape the future of filmmaking.
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