Obsidian Studio: "If It's AI-Detectable, You've Failed"

Obsidian Studio co-director Wes Walker has one standard for every project: if an audience can detect the AI, the film has failed. The studio, launched in 2025 and now partnered with Imagine Entertainment, has built its entire pipeline around that premise.

The Studio

Walker co-founded Obsidian with Louis Gheysens, CEO of Gang Group, a Belgian production company. The studio has 27 full time employees, five offices spanning New York, Paris, and Brussels, and no outside investors.

The company's first major commercial credit is an ad campaign for Longchamp, the French luxury fashion brand. Obsidian used that project as proof that AI generated content, when built around a director's storyboard, is indistinguishable from conventionally produced work.

The Pipeline

Obsidian calls its method "director centered". Every project starts with hand drawn storyboards before any AI model is introduced. Walker describes the sequence as human vision first, AI iteration second, high end VFX third.

"For us as directors, it helps us actually feel quite free to dream", Walker said. Gheysens put the philosophy more directly: "We want to understand what exists in the minds of the directors and use those tools at the service of the directors, not the other way around".

Kling AI is Obsidian's primary tool, and the studio has worked closely with the company since its founding.

The Imagine Partnership

Obsidian's deal with Imagine Entertainment covers development, previsualization, and post production. The two companies are developing at least one feature film and a documentary together, with titles not yet disclosed.

Ron Howard has framed AI tools as a way for directors to get more of what is in their "mind's eye" onto screen. His producing partner Brian Grazer applied AI to post production on "Churchill at War", using it to generate Winston Churchill's voice from wartime speeches that had never been recorded. The Obsidian deal extends both men's approach into a structured company relationship.

Cannes Panel

On May 18, Kling AI will host a session at the Cannes Marché du Film titled "From Creative Possibility to Production Reality: Kling AI in Cinematic Workflow". Walker is among the filmmakers appearing on the panel alongside Yang Eekjun, a South Korean director whose AI feature "Raphael" has drawn international attention.

The Cannes Marché du Film has dedicated significant programming to AI this year, with the Walker panel one of several sessions aimed at working filmmakers rather than industry executives.

What the Model Proposes

Walker's position lands differently from the two dominant industry arguments. The replacement camp says AI will cut costs by eliminating crew. The resistance camp says AI degrades craft. Obsidian's case is that AI, when the director controls the process from the first storyboard, can raise the quality ceiling.

That case now comes with the backing of one of Hollywood's most established production companies. Independent filmmakers can access the same image-to-video and text-to-video tools entering professional pipelines through AI FILMS Studio, without the production company infrastructure.

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Sources

The Hollywood Reporter | Variety | Deadline