Martin Scorsese has put his name behind an AI company, but his pitch is not about replacing actors, crews, or finished filmmaking.
The Oscar-winning director is now an advisor to Black Forest Labs, the company behind the FLUX image-generation tools. The company announced the partnership with a video showing Scorsese using the technology during a storyboarding session, framing the tool as a way to help filmmakers communicate visual ideas during preproduction.
The announcement lands in one of Hollywood’s most sensitive debates. AI has become a flashpoint for writers, actors, directors, studios, and audiences, but Scorsese is presenting his use of the technology as a planning tool rather than a replacement for human creative judgment.
Scorsese Says AI Helps Him Explain What He Sees
Martin Scorsese backs AI Company and says he’s using it to storyboard movies: ‘We have to be open to how’ Cinema can ‘evolve’.
Martin Scorsese: “Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve. I utilized 3D with ‘Hugo’ and… https://t.co/AmujLGb7AO pic.twitter.com/z5TdnOMmAR— films7 (@films7) June 2, 2026
Scorsese connected the new tool to a process he has used for decades.
“For 70 years, I’ve been creating my own storyboards,” he said in the statement shared by Black Forest Labs. He said directors have always faced the problem of communicating what they see in their heads to a cast and crew.
Scorsese said FLUX lets him share what he is visualizing more clearly with his production designer, art designer, and cinematographer. He said he recently tested the tool on a scene and found that being able to visualize and immediately share the storyboard was “creatively freeing.”
The director also tied the tool to the cost and pace of preproduction. He said time costs money during that stage and that the tool allowed him to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft.
He Is Framing the Tool as a Preproduction Aid
Scorsese’s argument is careful: technology can change how filmmakers prepare a movie, but the filmmaker’s taste and judgment still have to guide the process.
Black Forest Labs said Scorsese wants to use FLUX while keeping human taste, values, and judgment at the center. That language matters because much of Hollywood’s anxiety around AI centers on whether studios will use the technology to reduce creative labor, imitate artists, or treat generated images as a substitute for human work.
Scorsese also placed the move inside his own history of using film technology when it served the movie. He pointed to 3D work on Hugo and the de-aging technology used on The Irishman.
“Cinema is a young medium,” Scorsese said, adding that filmmakers should be open to how it can evolve.
The Endorsement Still Lands in a Divisive Moment
Even with the storyboarding caveat, Scorsese’s endorsement is likely to draw attention because of who he is.
Entertainment Weekly described the move as a major win for Hollywood’s pro-AI faction, noting that Scorsese appeared in a promotional video and is experimenting with the company’s technology to generate storyboards.
The timing also matters. AI has become one of the entertainment industry’s most divisive tools, with some filmmakers embracing it for preproduction, visual effects, language work, or conceptual imagery, while others have rejected generative AI more sharply.
EW noted that Guillermo del Toro has said he would rather die than use generative AI, while Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has criticized the technology as a “giant plagiarism machine.” The outlet also noted that Steven Spielberg has taken a narrower view, saying AI could be useful for processes such as location scouting but should not become the final word on creative decisions.
Scorsese’s position appears closer to that limited-use category. He is not presenting FLUX as a movie-making machine. He is presenting it as a way to show collaborators a visual idea before the movie is shot.
The First Test Appears Connected to His Next Film
EW reported that Scorsese is currently shooting an adaptation of Peter Cameron’s gothic mystery novel What Happens at Night, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.
The outlet noted that the Black Forest Labs video showed Scorsese using the technology to create a still image of a wintry European town that appeared consistent with the first look at the film.
That gives the announcement a practical frame. Scorsese is not only speaking about AI in theory. He is connecting it to the kind of preproduction image-making that can help a director explain tone, setting, weather, faces, mood, and visual language before a crew builds or shoots the scene.
The Limit Is the Storyboard
The most important limit is the one Scorsese is drawing himself.
His AI move is not a confirmed shift toward AI-generated cinema. It is a high-profile filmmaker using a controversial tool for storyboards, the part of filmmaking he says he has been doing by hand for 70 years.
That distinction will not end the debate around AI in Hollywood. It does make the Scorsese announcement more specific than the headline reaction around it: one of cinema’s most respected directors is testing AI as a way to communicate an image before production, not handing the movie over to the machine.