Promise, the entertainment studio that launched last year with a mandate to build a slate of films and series produced with the help of generative artificial intelligence tools, has made its first acquisition.
The studio, led by CEO George Strompolos, has acquired Curious Refuge, an AI film school that hosts online courses and real-life meetups, workshops and partnerships meant to teach film students, filmmakers and others in the entertainment ecosystem how to use AI tools in their work.
“One of the things that we really stressed when we announced the company is that we’re building this studio from the ground up,” Strompolos tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “We think this is such a transformational moment in entertainment that it demands really starting from scratch, and we’re building Promise in the era of generative AI around this new technology, and specifically around the artists who know how to harness this technology.
“The reality is, these are a new set of skills, and there aren’t that many people that have these skills yet,” he continued. “And so there’s this need to have production talent who are well versed in what’s possible, in generative AI.”
Caleb Ward, the co-founder of Curious Refuge, says that his company has worked with over 4,000 people from 171 countries since its founding in 2020.
“It all started with our AI filmmaking course, and since then, we’ve developed courses: We have AI animation, AI advertising, AI documentary, and then we just launched our advanced AI filmmaking course,” Ward says. “So we basically are a resource for creative artists to come in and learn the latest techniques and contextualize them into practical workloads.
“Not only do you have Academy Award winners, Emmy winners, like people who are really excelling in the traditional storytelling world, you also have people from around the world who normally did not have a seat at the table and are able to express their creative voice,” Ward says of his company’s users and alumni.
Promise believes that Curious Refuge can help build a pipeline of both talent and skills that can help it achieve its goal of becoming a fully-fledged studio. Creators who learn skills from Curious Refuge may be considered for roles on Promise projects, for example.
“We said, ‘okay, this is something special,'” Strompolos says of Curious Refuge. “It can be a place to train talent, to identify new talent, and to support the industry at large, and to help open doors for for this talent, whether that’s at Promise, working on our original productions or on projects across the industry.”
“In joining Promise, we really feel like this is going to open up more opportunities for our students to showcase their skills that they’re learning in both that promise and the industry at large,” Ward adds.
Promise launched last year, with Peter Chernin’s The North Road and Andrew Chen’s a16z among its financial backers. Terms of the Curious Refuge acquisition were not disclosed.
But the central premise of Promise is that gen AI tech can help turbocharge the creation of films, series, and short-form content. But given how fast-moving the technology is, every stakeholder in the industry needs to stay abreast of the latest advancements and how they can fit into the day-to-day work of creative development and production.
“As a studio, we’re figuring out what we feel is a new, efficient pipeline to produce a great product,” Strompolos says. “And the reality is, it’s pretty complicated right now, but we think over time, we’re going to turn that into something that’s efficient and collaborative and artist-led, and can can lead us to producing the high quality that we’re striving for.”
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