Monday Jun 8
ENTERTAINMENTOther

Scorsese Joins An AI Image Lab

8JUN
STORYBOARDSCORSESEFLUX

A 40-year industry titan publicly endorsed AI tools. Martin Scorsese joined Black Forest Labs (the FLUX image lab) as advisor and used their tools to storyboard his next film. The legitimacy battle just ended.

His quote: 'pre-production time costs money, this let us move faster.' First time the director has publicly named a specific vendor.

The lab makes open image models that sit alongside Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. Open-source posture differs from closed-Sora. This endorsement is a win for the open path.

Within 12 months expect more name directors to announce similar deals. Watch closing credits on his next film for whether the relationship was real or PR.

full brief & sources

⚡ Why this matters

  • Scorsese is among the 3-5 most authoritative living American film directors. His endorsement makes AI tools instantly safer for any director to use.
  • Pre-production storyboarding is the lowest-risk entry point for AI in film — fastest to validate, least union pushback.
  • Black Forest Labs' FLUX model is open source. A Scorsese endorsement legitimizes the open path vs. the closed-Sora path.

🔍 What happened

  • Martin Scorsese joined Black Forest Labs as an advisor (announced this week, Variety).
  • Black Forest Labs is the team behind the FLUX image model series — emerged as an alternative to Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.
  • Scorsese used Black Forest Labs' tools to storyboard a scene on his upcoming film.
  • His public statement: 'During pre-production time costs money, and this allowed us to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft.'

💬 Smart takes

  • Martin Scorsese: 'Pre-production time costs money — this let us move faster without sacrificing quality or craft.'
  • Industry watchers: Scorsese is the most credentialed director to publicly endorse a foundation-image-AI lab. The legitimacy threshold dropped overnight.
  • Skeptic: Advisor titles are cheap. Watch the credits on his next film, not what gets posted on Variety.

🧭 Where this goes

  1. Likely3-5 name directors announce AI tooling partnerships in the next 12 months following Scorsese's lead.
  2. Likelypre-production storyboarding becomes the standard first entry point for studio AI adoption.
  3. PossibleBlack Forest Labs raises a strategic round at a 5-10x valuation off the Scorsese signal.
  4. Wild Carda Scorsese film credits Black Forest Labs in the closing credits — first major-Hollywood AI-tool screen credit.

🥄 The Spoon Take

This is the legitimacy moment. When Scorsese — not a tech-adjacent director but a 40-year auteur — publicly endorses an AI image lab, the 'real filmmakers don't use AI' frame collapses. Pre-production is the foothold. Once storyboarding goes AI, set design and pre-vis follow within 2 years.

🤔 Pushback

Advisor titles are cheap and Scorsese hasn't committed to specific deliverables. The endorsement may be more PR than craft — watch his next film's credits for real signal.

·Variety - Scorsese + Black Forest Labs