"It's Likely Over for Us"

A Deadpool screenwriter's reaction to Seedance 2.0 — plus Gore Verbinski's anti-AI blockbuster, Grok Imagine 1.0, and why the MPA is terrified.

Author

Lawrence Jordan
February 13, 2026

Welcome to Today’s AIography!

Happy Friday! ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 has set the internet ablaze with a viral AI-generated fight scene between "Tom Cruise" and "Brad Pitt" — and the Motion Picture Association isn't laughing. Meanwhile, xAI enters the video generation race with Grok Imagine 1.0, Gore Verbinski returns to theaters with an anti-AI thriller, Kling 3.0's Multishot feature is turning heads in side-by-side model comparisons, and the r/aivideo AI Video Awards just crossed 54,000 submissions ahead of their Vegas ceremony. Let's dive in!

 In today’s AIography:

  • MPA Denounces "Massive Infringement" After AI Tom Cruise vs. Brad Pitt Video Goes Viral on Seedance 2.0

  • xAI Launches Grok Imagine 1.0 — Elon's Play for AI Video Generation

  • Gore Verbinski's Anti-AI Thriller "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" Opens to Strong Reviews

  • Kling 3.0 "Multishot" Comparison — AI Filmmakers Test Consistency Across Models

  • r/aivideo AI Video Awards 2026 — 54,000+ Submissions, March 15 in Vegas

  • AIography's AI Filmmaking & Content Creation Directory

  • Short Takes

  • One More Thing…

Read time: About 8 minutes

THE LATEST NEWS

TL;DR: An AI-generated video of "Tom Cruise" fighting "Brad Pitt" on a rooftop — created entirely with ByteDance's new Seedance 2.0 model — went massively viral this week, prompting the Motion Picture Association to officially denounce the model for "massive copyright infringement."

Key Takeaways:

  • ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 generated a hyper-realistic fight scene between digital likenesses of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt from a simple text prompt, complete with convincing facial expressions and lip sync

  • The MPA (which represents major Hollywood studios and streamers) issued a formal statement calling the output "massive infringement" on intellectual property and celebrity likenesses

  • Deadpool screenwriter Rhett Reese responded on social media saying "it's likely over for us" — capturing the anxiety rippling through Hollywood's creative community

  • The viral clip has reignited debates about AI training data, likeness rights, and whether existing copyright law can handle generative video at this fidelity

  • Seedance 2.0 represents a significant quality leap — multiple observers noted shot-to-shot consistency, natural expressions, and clean audio generation that rivals studio-quality output

Why It's Important: This is a watershed moment for AI filmmaking — and not in the way creators might have hoped. For the first time, a text-to-video model has produced output realistic enough to trigger a formal industry-wide legal response. The MPA's intervention signals that Hollywood's major players are moving from concerned observation to active enforcement. For independent AI filmmakers, this raises urgent questions: Where exactly is the line between creative inspiration and infringement? How will likeness rights be enforced when any model can generate photorealistic versions of real actors? And critically, will the legal backlash against tools like Seedance 2.0 also restrict the legitimate creative uses that make AI video generation so exciting for independent filmmakers? The Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt clip may be the AI video world's "Napster moment" — the viral event that forces the entire industry to confront what's possible and what's permissible.

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TL;DR: Elon Musk's xAI has officially entered the AI video generation space with Grok Imagine 1.0, a new model that generates 10-second HD videos with built-in audio, marking a significant expansion of the Grok ecosystem beyond text.

Key Takeaways:

  • Grok Imagine 1.0 generates 10-second HD video clips with synchronized audio from text prompts, available now on the X/Grok platform

  • Early side-by-side comparisons from users show the model competing with Kling 3.0, Runway Gen-4.5, and Google Veo 3.1 in quality and instruction-following

  • The model includes built-in editing tools and strong prompt adherence — a marked departure from Grok's earlier meme-focused image generation

  • Grok itself has been actively promoting the model's capabilities in replies across X, claiming the company is "iterating fast" to "rival and surpass" competitors

  • Video creators are testing it with everything from biblical stories to action sequences, noting particularly strong performance in character consistency and motion quality

Why It's Important: The AI video generation space just got significantly more competitive. With Grok Imagine 1.0, xAI joins Seedance, Kling, Veo, Sora, Runway, and Pika in what's becoming a crowded — and rapidly improving — field. For filmmakers and creators, more competition means faster innovation and likely more affordable access to high-quality video generation tools. The integration directly into the X platform also lowers the barrier to entry: any X Premium subscriber can experiment with AI video without signing up for a separate service. Whether Grok Imagine can match the cinematic quality of Seedance 2.0 or Veo 3 remains to be seen, but xAI's deep pockets and willingness to move fast make it a serious contender.

TL;DR: Director Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Ring") has returned after a decade-long absence with "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die," a sci-fi action-comedy starring Sam Rockwell as a time traveler fighting rogue AI — and the film is landing with critics and audiences as a sharp commentary on the current AI moment.

Key Takeaways:

  • The film stars Sam Rockwell as a man from the future who takes hostages in an LA diner to recruit them in a fight against rogue AI, with Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, and Zazie Beetz co-starring

  • Currently sitting at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its "batshit, unapologetically funny" tone and willingness to tackle real-world AI anxiety

  • Verbinski told The Seattle Times he'll "never look to AI to make art" — a pointed statement as the film industry grapples with generative AI tools

  • The Verge's Charles Pulliam-Moore wrote the film "gets at the heart of everything that makes society feel poisoned about the big push for AI"

  • Audiences are calling it "the anti-AI film Hollywood needs right now," with one reviewer noting the film contains a quote that's "gonna stick with people"

Why It's Important: It's rare to see a major Hollywood director tackle AI head-on in a theatrical release, and Verbinski's timing couldn't be more relevant. The film arrives the same week as the Seedance 2.0/MPA controversy, making its central message — essentially, "Fuck AI," according to multiple reviewers — feel less like sci-fi and more like documentary. For filmmakers in the AIography community, this creates an interesting tension: many of us are excited about AI as a creative tool while simultaneously understanding the fears Verbinski is dramatizing. Love it or hate it, a Pirates of the Caribbean director making headlines with an anti-AI message is going to shape the cultural conversation around these tools.

TL;DR: A detailed side-by-side comparison of Seedance 2.0, Sora 2, Kling 3.0, and Runway Gen-4.5 is making the rounds, with Kling 3.0's Multishot feature getting particular praise for maintaining character and scene consistency across multiple generated clips.

Key Takeaways:

  • Kling 3.0's Multishot allows generating multiple angles/shots of the same scene with consistent characters

  • Side-by-side tests show Kling leading in prompt adherence and consistency, Seedance 2.0 leading in raw cinematic quality

  • Runway Gen-4.5 praised for motion quality but lagging on character consistency

  • Sora 2 still struggles with longer clips and complex scene directions

  • The "quality vs consistency" tradeoff is emerging as the key differentiator between models

Why It's Important: For anyone actually trying to make an AI film — not just single clips — consistency is everything. You need your character to look the same in shot 1 and shot 47. Kling 3.0's Multishot is the first feature from any model that directly addresses this core filmmaking need. This comparison makes clear that the best tool depends on what you're making: Seedance for single beautiful shots, Kling for actual multi-shot sequences.

TL;DR: The community-driven AI Video Awards have exploded to over 54,000 submissions across categories including Best Short Film, Music Video, TV Ad, and "Mindblowing Video" — the ceremony is set for March 15 in Las Vegas.

Key Takeaways:

  • Over 54,000 video submissions — up massively from the first iteration

  • Categories: Mindblowing Video, Music Video, Short Film, TV Ad of the Year, and more

  • Judging includes both community voting and industry panel

  • March 15, 2026 in Las Vegas — first major in-person AI video awards ceremony

  • Submissions showcase the full range of tools: Kling, Runway, Sora, Seedance, Pika, Luma

Why It's Important: This is AI filmmaking's first real awards ceremony at scale — and 54,000 submissions means the creative community has moved well past the "novelty clips" phase into serious filmmaking. For AIography members, this is the kind of event where the community's work gets recognized alongside the broader industry. If you're making AI films, this is your Sundance moment. Worth watching — and potentially submitting to.

AI Filmmaking & Content Creation Tools Database

Check out the Alpha version of our AI Tools Database. We will be adding to it on a regular basis.

Got a tip about a great new tool? Send it along to us at: [email protected]

SHORT TAKES

ONE MORE THING…

Video of the Week

Just when you think you've calibrated your expectations for AI video, someone comes along and recalibrates them for you. AI creator Linus Ekenstam dropped "WAFFLE" this week — a chaotic, cinematic action sequence generated entirely with Seedance 2.0 that feels like a Michael Bay fever dream. The video showcases Seedance 2.0's remarkable ability to maintain shot-to-shot consistency, handle complex action choreography, and generate convincing physics (well, mostly). It's been shared thousands of times across X, with one commenter calling it "the first time AI video actually felt like cinema and not a tech demo." Whether you love the output or find it terrifying — or both — it's undeniably a showcase of where we are right now.

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