Elon Musk plans AI-made Odyssey film

Elon Musk has challenged Christopher Nolan and promised critics of the director's The Odyssey a new, "historically accurate" retelling of Odysseus' story created entirely with artificial intelligence.

After spending months criticizing the epic blockbuster starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, and Lupita Nyong'o with remarks widely described as racist, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire announced that his AI model, Grok, will produce a feature-length film "faithful to Homer's work" by the end of the year, in time for the next awards season, CE Report quotes ANSA.

Musk's post on X included a three-minute short film created by one of his followers using Grok Imagine, featuring an all-white cast. He also endorsed another follower's suggestion to give Mel Gibson $100 million to produce a new version of The Odyssey "with historically accurate ships, armor, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken directly from the original poem and spoken in Homeric Greek."

Even before Nolan's film was released, Musk had repeatedly criticized the production, particularly objecting to the casting of Lupita Nyong'o, who is Black, as Helen—traditionally described as "white-armed" in Homer's poem. He also criticized the casting of transgender actor Elliott Page, mistakenly believing he had been cast as Achilles. In reality, Nolan cast Page as Sinon, the Greek soldier whose role comes from Virgil's Aeneid rather than Homer's Odyssey.

Musk called the Oppenheimer director "anti-white racist" and predicted the film would fail under the slogan "go woke, go broke."

However, the technology billionaire's prediction has been contradicted by the box office. The Odyssey, which opened worldwide last weekend and earned roughly $250 million globally, has continued to perform strongly during the week, boosted by IMAX screenings, its star-studded cast, and growing interest among younger audiences. Many have also turned to printed, e-book, and audiobook editions of Homer's epic.

According to the Swedish streaming platform, the 91 audiobook editions of The Odyssey, available in 10 languages, have been streamed for the equivalent of more than 43 years of continuous listening. The poem has been especially popular among younger audiences, with 36% of listeners belonging to Generation Z and 45% to Millennials.

Photo: Wikipedia