Darren Aronofsky has showcased the work his new AI-forward studio Primordial Soup can do. Now he is seeking more money to do it. The company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that it was seeking to raise $15 million in cash in exchange for equity in the studio.
The filing lists Aronofsky and his producing partner Dylan Golden as chief executives in the venture, and it stated that Primordial Soup has so far sold just over $11 million in equity this month. A spokesperson for Aronofsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The effort underscores Aronofsky’s ambitions in the space, with the“Requiem for a Dream”and“Black Swan”director’s studio hiring for a“Head of Studio”and multiple“Generative Artists”to work on AI-focused projects.
Primordial Soup rolled out a year ago and partnered with Google’s DeepMind unit to produce multiple short films, with each filmmaker receiving mentorship by Aronofsky and the DeepMind team. “Filmmaking has always been driven by technology,”Aronofsky stated in an official statement at the time. “After the Lumiere brothers and Edison’s ground-breaking invention, filmmakers unleashed the hidden storytelling power of cameras.
Later technological breakthroughs — sound, color, VFX — allowed us to tell stories in ways that couldn’t be told before. Today is no different. Now is the moment to explore these new tools and shape them for the future of storytelling.”
Since the launch, Primordial Soup developed animated series“On This Day… 1776,”which used a hybrid model of AI tools and traditional filmmaking methods. To recreate moments throughout the year America was founded.