Scorsese Explores AI
Martin Scorsese Partners with Black Forest Labs, Uses AI for Faster Storyboarding
Martin Scorsese has joined Black Forest Labs as a partner and adviser, using its FLUX generative-AI image tools to speed up storyboarding and other pre-production concept work rather than to directly drive filmmaking. Reporting based on statements and a video filmed in Scorsese’s New York office says the director’s main goal is faster visualization and iteration for his creative team, with the technology helping translate scenes he is planning into images that can be shared with production and cinematography staff. The partnership is framed as evidence that Hollywood’s earlier resistance to AI is fading, while Black Forest Labs positions the use as a “proof point” for real production workflows. Black Forest Labs, a Germany-based company behind the FLUX model, has technology integrated across major design and creator platforms and has previously faced controversy around partnerships, including declining to work with xAI’s image system. Scorsese’s outreach also underscores his broader openness to new cinematic techniques, echoing how he has previously used tools like 3D and de-aging in his work.
Key Points
In a statement on Black Forest Labs’ site, Scorsese framed the move as creative evolution—saying, “Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve,” and adding the partnership is meant to “push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences.”
In Black Forest Labs’ accompanying video from Scorsese’s New York office, he demonstrates the FLUX model by storyboarding and then discusses how he staged the “famous Steadicam shot” from “Goodfellas” as mobster Henry Hill moves through the Copacabana nightclub—describing how each “vignette” had to be intricately planned.
Scorsese argued the practical payoff goes beyond visuals: “If you have a tool like this, you could figure it out much much quicker and you could save production time, and also less wear and tear on the crew,” in remarks included in the video.
Black Forest Labs’ scale and footprint were detailed: the startup is a “70-person outfit” headquartered in Freiburg, Germany, and it powers AI image features inside major products including Adobe, Canva, Microsoft, and Meta; TechCrunch also reported it was last valued at $3.25 billion and linked Scorsese’s tie via the investor BroadLight Capital, co-founded by Rick Yorn.
The reporting also described who helped connect Scorsese to the company: Variety/NYT reporting said Scorsese’s spokesperson credited introductions through BroadLight Capital (an investor co-founded by Rick Yorn) and that CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz “also helped seal the partnership”; it also noted it was unclear whether Scorsese personally invested.
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