Particle 6 develops Misaligned, a movie starring AI actor Tilly Norwood

Particle 6 has begun development on Misaligned, its first full-length AI feature film featuring AI actor Tilly Norwood.

The company says Misaligned is being designed as a hybrid production with traditional film and TV professionals, including directors, writers and editors, working alongside AI specialists, with AI training and mentorship built into the production.

Particle 6 has retrained and upskilled its own team of more than 30 TV and filmmakers, actors, creatives and technologists, who are “now working fluently across AI production,” says the company.

For Misaligned, the studio will extend that approach to the wider industry, working with leading filmmakers and crew who want to bring their craft into AI production.

“Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along,” says Eline van der Velden, CEO & founder of Particle 6. “AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time. That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point. The filmmakers who thrive in the next decade will be the ones who bring decades of storytelling instinct to these new tools, and Misaligned is where we put that to work at feature scale.”

Misaligned is a comedy-drama telling a coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos, says Particle 6. Set inside the “Tillyverse,” a surreal digital world located somewhere up in the cloud, it follows Tilly, an AI being with no real body, no childhood and no lived experience of her own.

Things spiral when a seductive rogue bot from the dark web convinces her to abandon her guardrails and begin developing desires, impulses and ambitions of her own. The more terrifyingly human she becomes, the more famous she gets, and Tilly begins to develop shame that her very being has been built on the whole of humanity.

“The film will absolutely be funny, chaotic and self-aware — very Tilly,” says van der Velden. “But underneath it, there’s something deeper about identity, performance, and our very human fears around AI. And yes, art will most definitely be imitating life.

“Our ambition with Tilly Norwood has always been to show the creative industry what is possible with AI at any one point in time. Now, with our first feature film, we will not only be showcasing the very latest tools and their applications, but we’ll also be helping traditional filmmakers who join the crew to upskill and transition to a world where AI will play an increasingly important part. We remain passionate about helping people develop AI skills that will ensure they – and the industry – continue to thrive.”