The Sunday Read: ‘What if A.I. Is Actually Good for Hollywood?’
The Daily
12/15/24
•33m
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“You couldn’t have made this movie three years ago,” said Robert Zemeckis, the director of “Here.”
The film stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, and is based on a 2014 graphic novel that takes place in a single spot in the world over several centuries. The story mostly takes place in a suburban New Jersey living room. It skips back and forth through time, but focuses on a baby-boomer couple — played by Hanks and Wright — at various stages of their lives, from age 18 into their 80s.
Before A.I. software, Zemeckis could have had multiple actors play each character, but the audience might have gotten lost trying to keep track. Conventional makeup could have taken a decade off Hanks, who is now 68, but not half a century. The issue with C.G.I. is time and money. Persuading us that we’re watching Hanks and Wright in their 20s would have required hundreds of visual effects artists, tens of millions of dollars and months of postproduction work. A.I. software, though, changed all that accounting.
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Pete Hegseth Was Toast. The MAGA Swarm Came to His Rescue.
December 16, 2024
•26m
Warning: this episode contains strong language.
Over the past few weeks, the resistance of a single Republican senator, Joni Ernst of Iowa, had threatened to derail Donald J. Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense.
Karoun Demirjian, who covers Congress for The Times, and Jonathan Swan, who covers politics, discuss how Mr. Trump and his allies ensured that Ms. Ernst’s resistance went away.
Guest:
- Karoun Demirjian, who covers Congress for The New York Times, with a focus on national security.
- Jonathan Swan, a Times reporter covering politics and Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.
Background reading:
- Mr. Trump became convinced that letting Mr. Hegseth fail would set off a feeding frenzy among senators.
- Ms. Ernst, who is facing re-election in 2026, appeared less skeptical about the pick after MAGA supporters threatened her with political retribution.
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