Matthew Modine joins the ‘Hope this helps!’ As PE; Doc uses satire, the strange, furry blue creature to explore the dangers, the promise of AI

EXCLUSIVE: Actor-producer Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff’s Cinco Dedos Peliculas production company have signed on as executive producers of Hope this helps!a documentary that explores the promise and peril of artificial intelligence.

Writer-director Daniel Freed enlisted Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, to help create the documentary, described as a “humorous, genre-bending hybrid film” that invites viewers to ponder the “evolving relationship between humanity and technology.”

Responding to requests from the filmmaker, Google’s Bard has created a furry blue creature with big eyes to lessen the menacing specter of AI.

“Artificial intelligence is the most important, life-changing technological advance in modern human history. Stop,” Modine said in a statement. As a SAG-AFTRA board member, Modine was deeply involved in contentious contract talks last year between the actors’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a dispute that was resolved After a nearly four-month strike, artificial intelligence became one of the main sticking points in those negotiations, with actors on the defensive about how the technology would be used in film and television production.

“Science fiction, television shows, and movies have repeatedly presented stories that describe the myriad potential dangers of artificial intelligence to all of us. As often happens, science fiction becomes science fact. And here we are. The AI ​​tail wagging the AI ​​dog,” Modine continued in his statement. “AI agents possess the power to alter and control human behavior in ways that were unimaginable just half a century ago. Daniel Freed’s new documentary uses satire and whimsy to question whether the benefits of AI can outweigh the many risks. Adam Rackoff and I and Cinco Dedos Peliculas are thrilled to be joining Hope this helps! the team. This is a must see movie.”

Hope this helps! premiering in May at the prestigious DocLands Documentary Film Festival in San Rafael, California. It will continue a festival run before wider distribution plans are announced.

“This project started as an effort to bring more people into the conversation about how AI is changing the world we live in,” noted Freed. “We are incredibly excited to have Matthew and Adam partner with us,” said Daniel Freed. “Not only do they have a wealth of experience in the world of independent film, Matthew has thought deeply about artificial intelligence in his roles as an actor and as an advocate for other actors. Meditating on the topic of the unintended consequences of technology on humanity in Oppenheimerhe also eloquently shared his thoughts on AI while working on the recent SAG-AFTRA negotiations.”

Hope this helps! is written and directed by Daniel Freed and features the work of cinematographer Brendan Hubbard, editor Joshua Bowen and composer John E. Low – all of whom previously worked together on the CNBC crime documentary series. American greed.

Cinco Dedos Peliculas (CDP) is a film and new media production company co-founded by Modine with producer and former Apple marketing executive Adam Rackoff. Modine and Rackoff have produced several award-winning feature films, environmental documentaries and animated films, including Against the Current (2021) and My love affair with marriage (2023). Their latest documentary, Downwindshows the consequences of decades of nuclear bomb testing on American soil. Downwind is narrated by Martin Sheen and features Michael Douglas, Lewis Black and John Wayne’s son Patrick.

Freed worked for 12 years as a producer and senior writer for CNBC American greed. He is the co-author of Call Me Commander: A Former Intelligence Officer and the Journalists Who Revealed His Plot to Take Over America, a non-fiction book that describes a daring charity scam orchestrated by a man while he is wanted by the FBI for questioning in an espionage investigation. His work for television and print has been broadcast or published by PBS, Current TV, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.