Fox's AI studio head says filmmakers now pitch features with AI savings built into the budget

Jon Flynn, who heads FoxNXT at Fox Entertainment, told the AI Creator Day audience on 29 September that artificial intelligence is already changing how filmmakers walk into a pitch meeting. His example was a creative who presented a feature with AI tools written into the plan from the start, so that a single session did the work of what would normally take several.

“We can teach you those tools, but I cannot teach you 20 years of industry experience.”

Jon Flynn, EVP and head of FoxNXT, Fox Entertainment, at AI Creator Day · thewrap.com ↗

The numbers were the heart of that pitch. The filmmaker assumed AI would free up roughly 15% of the budget and asked to spend that slice on shooting in two locations instead of one, without raising the overall figure. Flynn said it was not a one-off: other filmmakers are arriving with a better sense of how the tools can stretch a budget. He put the average saving at about 20%, which FoxNXT treats as a benchmark, though he called "savings" the wrong word because the real gain is time. His illustration was a six-episode series, where a fifth of the budget covers the sixth episode. He also cited one project that went from greenlight to final cut in 18 days.

On the human side, Flynn framed AI as a tool rather than a replacement. Showrunners, directors and editors keep doing their jobs, and in his telling the money saved should buy more content rather than fewer jobs. He added that studios owe the industry training on whatever tools they adopt, and that he left Google, where he led AI go-to-market for media, to be in the room where studios decide how to use it.

FoxNXT launched in April as Fox's in-house studio for AI and next-generation technology. Fox has pointed to AI in its vertical video, editing and advertising platform, partnerships with AWS and Google Cloud, and the recreation of camera angles in a TMZ special on Princess Diana's crash. The panel was moderated by TheWrap's Roger Cheng; the outlets differ on the venue, with TheWrap naming UCLA's Ralph Freud Playhouse and What's Trending the DGA Theater in Los Angeles.