We Asked an A.I. to Write Sequels to Beloved Movies

There is a lot of discussion and hand wringing these days (a lot of it quite deserved!) about the rise of artificial intelligence. And this ain’t the cute kind of A.I. that looks like Haley Joel Osment. This is the sort that can mimic human thinking, speech, and even writing, producing work in an instant that would take a real person hours or days. Ahead of its upcoming contract negotiations, the Writers Guild of America revealed is already concerned enough about A.I. to add “regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies” as one of its demands.

It’s an alarming thought: Could artificial intelligence start writing movies? What would that look like?

I didn’t go so far as to ask the A.I. chatbot ChatGPT to write me a whole screenplay — but out of curiosity, I did ask it to pitch ideas for sequels to a variety of films.

Its responses were surprising. Sometimes they were good; good enough that you could see someone buying a ticket to the film. Other times, the pitches were boring or even bizarre.

A few were so deranged they might qualify as brilliant. (A time traveling, alternate dimension spanning sequel to It’s a Wonderful Life? Okay!)

READ MORE: We Asked an AI Chatbot Why 25 Classic Movies Are So Great

The movies I offered up for sequels varied. Some are already getting sequels; a few are in the later stages of development right now. A few were decades old and will never get a sequel. Out of curiosity, I also asked it to come up with ideas for sequels to a couple movies people hate.

The A.I.’s responses ignored the feasibility of the projects — although in one case it did actually warn me that even attempting one of my proposed sequels was a really risky proposition. (Apparently robot brains already possess more discerning taste than some Hollywood studio executives.)

Once or twice, it even pitched ideas with “rogue artificial intelligence” as the villain, which definitely did not make me think twice about this whole endeavor.

Here are 20 A.I.-generated ideas for sequels to popular movies. (For the full experience, I recommend having Siri read the pitches out loud to you.)