Steven Soderbergh Used Meta AI in His John Lennon Documentary at Cannes

Steven Soderbergh's documentary "John Lennon: The Last Interview" uses Meta AI tools for approximately 10% of its runtime, Soderbergh confirmed in a Deadline interview ahead of the film's world premiere at Cannes as a special screening. He applied AI to sequences where Lennon's most abstract reflections could not be illustrated with conventional archival footage.

The Interview at the Center of the Film

The documentary is built around Lennon's final recorded interview, conducted at The Dakota in New York City on December 8, 1980, hours before his murder. Lennon spoke about Double Fantasy, the album he released that year after five years away from recording, and about creativity, parenthood, and his life in New York.

The interview's most revealing passages are philosophical and abstract, describing states of mind and ways of seeing that do not exist as footage. That gap is what Soderbergh addressed with AI.

Where the AI Comes In

Soderbergh used Meta AI to generate surreal visual sequences for portions of the interview where Lennon spoke in esoteric or abstract terms. One example involved tiny babies dressed in 1960s period clothing, to illustrate Lennon's reflections on innocence and time. The AI imagery is clearly not photographic and is not intended to deceive.

"There's a way of using AI in which your intention is to fool somebody or manipulate them", Soderbergh said. "And then there's a use, which is what we're doing in the documentary, where it's obvious that it is AI and that it is being used essentially in the way that you would use VFX or CGI".

Transparency as the Standard

Soderbergh disclosed the AI use from the start and has been direct about why. "All I can do in any of these discussions about AI is just be transparent", he said. "That's got to be rule number one".

He argued the same position at the Sands Film Festival earlier in 2026, saying AI is a legitimate production tool when the filmmaker is honest about how it is used. The Lennon documentary puts that argument into practice on one of the most visible stages of the year.

The Meta Partnership

Meta approached Soderbergh and asked him to stress test their filmmaking tools. The collaboration became a full creative technology partnership, with Meta providing both technology and financial backing. The arrangement is disclosed publicly, not buried in end credits.

Brian Grazer applied AI to postproduction on his Churchill film for Netflix around the same period. Soderbergh's approach goes further, integrating AI into the film's visual logic as a creative design decision. Soderbergh is also among the backers of RSL Media, Cate Blanchett's open AI consent standard launched at Cannes this week.

Sales at the Cannes Market

International sales for "John Lennon: The Last Interview" launched at the Cannes Marché du Film on May 13 through production company 193, founded by Patrick Wachsberger and backed by Legendary Entertainment. The world premiere is a Cannes special screening.

Filmmakers building documentary sequences with AI video tools can explore text-to-video and image-to-video at AI FILMS Studio's video workspace.

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Sources

Deadline | Variety | NME | Rolling Stone | The Playlist