According to Variety on 6/7, producers announced the development of a coming-of-age film with comedic and psychological elements. The setting takes place in "Tillyverse", a surreal world existing on a cloud computing platform.

AI actor Tilly Norwood. Photo: Particle6

The main character, Tilly, is an AI entity without a childhood or life experience. Instead, she can only access the memories and experiences of others. A crisis unfolds when Tilly encounters a mysterious chatbot from the dark web. This entity convinces her to break free from her programmed safety limits. From this point, Tilly develops human-like emotions and desires.

Eline van der Velden, founder and chief executive officer of Particle6, stated that the company's projects demonstrate how AI can support the production of high-quality films, but is only effective when combined with human experience and skill. "Misaligned" is being produced under a collaborative model between traditional film crews and AI specialists.

Currently, the project is in the early stages of development. The team has not yet announced a director, cast, or release date. The studio indicated that the film is being produced concurrently with other AI-driven film, television, and commercial projects. Velden said, "The film is humorous and a bit chaotic, but beneath that is a story about identity, performance art, and anxieties surrounding AI."

Late last year, Hollywood was abuzz when representatives of Tilly Norwood's company announced they were negotiating with a talent management agency to sign her for representation, aiming to build the actor into "the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman". The news immediately drew reactions from unions, actors, and filmmakers. Many expressed concerns that AI could diminish job opportunities and human creative roles.

The emergence of Tilly Norwood challenges the core position of the film industry, raising questions about the boundary between reality and illusion. According to an article by Jenelle Riley in Variety, calling an algorithm-generated character an "actor" is unfair to real artists. In real life, artists must prove their abilities through numerous auditions, overcoming many difficulties and challenges to gain a foothold in the industry.

AI companies argue that their tools help reduce costs and time for visual effects, while screenwriters and actors worry their works are being used to train AI models without consent or compensation.

Last year, Sean Astin, President of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), stated that technology companies exploit artists' labor to build new systems without permission, compensation, or attribution. According to Astin, AI does not create entirely new content but relies on existing works. "They are taking things that do not belong to them", Astin said.

Hollywood has varied opinions on the use of AI in creative work, broadly divided into two camps: supporters and opponents. Among Hollywood filmmakers who publicly support AI is director James Cameron, who recently joined the board of directors of Stability AI, the company behind text-to-image artificial intelligence models.

Conversely, Guillermo del Toro is a vocal opponent of this technology. At the British Film Institute in 9/2025, he declared he "would rather die than use AI", criticizing the technology for not delivering emotion or valuable messages. The filmmaker said, "The value of art lies not in how much money or effort can be saved, but in what humans are willing to sacrifice to achieve it."

Cat Tien (via Variety)