AI is continuing to be implemented in the post-production stages of studio films, though “Hunger Games” franchise producer Nina Jacobson still views it as a “tool for artists” and “not a substitute” for them.
During a conversation with IndieWire editor-in-chief Brent Lang at IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit in Los Angeles Jacobson said the team used AI approximations of actors to test out new line readings for the upcoming prequel “Sunrise on the Reaping.” Those lines would then be recorded with the cast in traditional automated dialogue replacement process.
“We just finished [post-production], fairly recently, on ‘Sunrise on the Reaping.’ We used [AI] very specifically as a tool — within production, within post-production — while, at the same time, never using it to ever replace any of our artists or anything you see onscreen,” Jacobson said. “When you have ADR you want try out, you used to either have the editor getting in there with the lines you wanted … Just for something you’re trying out that you might not even keep. [AI] is a great tool to use ADR.”
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Jacobson went on to explain how the technology has relatively limited applications for her, none of which find their way onto the screen.
“They can duplicate a voice. You can have the thing that you want to go get, or do a slug that actually looks like what you want … But we would still never use it because it’s not our actors,” she continued. “We’d go to our writer for the dialogue. I don’t ask Claude, ‘What should they say?’ I don’t ask Claude to finish the movie for us. But as a tool within production [and] within post-production that advances your work, and ultimately gets you to a better creative outcome, it’s crazy not to make use of the tool that the entire world now seems to be hinging upon.”
The prequel “Sunrise on the Reaping,” in theaters from Lionsgate on November 20, is the sixth film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ popular young adult books series. The movie franchise first launched in 2012, with three additional entries produced quickly in the immediate years. Lionsgate revived the property in 2023 with the prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” exploring the early politicking of the dystopian world of Panem and how the tyrant President Snow came to power.
“We don’t make the movies unless [Collins] writes a book. We’re not trying to just milk this title,” Jacobson said when asked about the franchise’s longevity. “They speak so much to the way that we live now and how we are living. The last one was really about the allure of authoritarianism. Why do we embrace it as a political system? Why are people drawn to it? … This one is about resistance: the cost of [it, and] the fact that just because something is a certain way today does not mean it always will be. You cannot predict the future based on the status quo.”
“Young people are growing up at a time where it seems impossible that we would ever be able to address climate change or the recession in democracy that we’ve seen across the globe, and yet it is that propaganda that kind of keeps you in that place of believing there’s nothing I can do to make a difference,” Jacobson continued. “Sometimes you won’t see the consequences of your resistance [in] four years, or maybe even in your lifetime. But it still adds up. … Whether you’ve seen none of the movies or all of them, it feels very much like a movie about the times we live in.”
Along with Jacobson’s “Hunger Games” talk, the producer touched on other projects from her film production company Color Force, including the coming “Dirty Dancing” sequel starring Jennifer Grey and HBO’s “Crazy Rich Asians” series. IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit also included a keynote by directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, diving into the production of their sci-fi blockbuster “Project Hail Mary,” and a one-on-one with Bill Hader on what he learned making his upcoming feature debut “They Know.”
Watch the complete conversation with Jacobson in the video above.
IndieWire Future of Filmmaking 2026 Summit is presented by AT&T Untold Stories, an impactful multi-year collaboration between AT&T and Tribeca Festival that awards $1.2 million dollars, mentorship, and comprehensive support to the next generation of filmmakers looking to bring their films to the big screen. For more information, visit here.