An AI filmmaker, Ash Koosha, has revealed he is producing his own 135-minute adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, titled "Odysseus: The Fall," timed closely to the release of Christopher Nolan's $250 million big-budget version of the same story. Made for a few thousand dollars with no actors, using generative AI tools, the project has sparked controversy and debate about whether it undermines traditional filmmaking, with Koosha insisting he is not competing with Nolan but demonstrating a parallel, lower-cost path for storytelling.

Koosha, an Iran-born, England-raised engineer, runs the AI-focused production company Fountain 0 alongside his brother Pooya and producer Tom Rogers, the CNBC founder. The announcement landed amid a public disagreement between Nolan and star Matt Damon over the future of large-scale analogue filmmaking, intensifying scrutiny of Koosha's motives. He points to his earlier AI film "Dreams of Violet," about Iran's democracy protests, which debuted at Tribeca, as evidence AI filmmaking can serve urgent storytelling needs, arguing his new project raises similar questions about speed and access in cinema, even though release is still several weeks away.