Fountain 0 announced that Sunny Hostin, co-anchor of the acclaimed daily talk show The View, would become the first major personality to agree to develop and produce one or more films, and license her image and likeness for purposes of those films to the leading AI film and TV studio.
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Sunny Hostin
Fountain 0, which produced the first full length, live action film to be accepted at a major film festival, when it premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival last month, has also announced the release of its newest film, Odysseus: The Fall, in the very near future. The studio has gotten very significant national press for having produced content at a quality level comparable to traditional productions.
Odysseus: The Fall is using images of real people in the film, including Ash Koosha, the film’s creator and CEO of Fountain 0 as Odysseus; Pooya Koosha, co-producer and co-founder of Fountain 0, as Eurylochus; and Tom Rogers, Executive Chairman of Fountain 0 and executive producer of the film, as Mentor.
Having demonstrated that the proprietary software and virtual production studio that Fountain 0 has built on top of AI video models is capable of reducing production costs to nominal levels while achieving the highest of quality productions, it has set its sights on ways to reduce marketing and promotion costs of its films. Along these lines, a key innovation that Fountain 0 intends to pursue is licensing the images of well-known personalities and influencers to represent characters in upcoming productions as a way to efficiently market releases to their followers. It has been proven for decades that recognizable personalities in films drive audience appeal, and to combine that with the power of social media relevance creates a formula to better enable audiences to know about films that incorporate the image of those they follow.
Sunny Hostin could not be a more perfect example of a very well-known figure to pioneer this new approach to incorporating the likenesses of key personalities into new films. Sunny not only has heavily devoted fans who enjoy her political, social, legal and cultural television commentary, while also having a major social media presence, but she is also a New York Times bestselling author, having written several books of fiction. In that regard, Sunny intends to bring her novels to the big screen through the industry leading AI film production capability of Fountain 0, while incorporating her own image in the film.
Ash Koosha stated, “This is obviously new territory for major talent personalities. We are incredibly gratified that Sunny is willing to be the talent pioneer willing to step out and take advantage of this new form of creative expression. Sunny, of course, will be able to decide which of her works she develops into a film, and what roles her image can be incorporated into under a licensing agreement which gives her strict control over how her image can be used.”
Sunny Hostin stated, “I am thrilled to be a part of how top-quality AI productions cannot only enable writers and directors to have their imaginations unleashed and no longer be tethered to budgetary constraints, but I am excited to be able to help pioneer a new art form which can open up new dimensions for how public personalities can engage with audiences.”
Sunny Hostin, continued, “To be able to bring my novels to life in movie and TV form, and actually have my image inserted in the productions, so that audiences can relate to me through my stories beyond my role as an author, is incredibly exciting to me. This entire generational innovation in filmmaking from Fountain 0 gives me confidence that AI can give me a way to both more fully develop, and more fully immerse myself in, IP I have developed. I feel particularly strongly that there is a need to bring stories to the big screen that are more in tune with the lives of diverse audiences that Hollywood focuses too little on, and I believe Fountain 0’s AI productions can have a major impact on responding to the interests of these underserved audiences.”
Pooya Koosha, also post-producer of the films, stated, “Our ability to refine image generation to not only present the physical likeness of a personality, but to match their voice and other characteristics will give fans a real sense that their favorite talents are actually present in the productions despite the fact that they will be synthetic images.”
Tom Rogers stated, “Our approach is to make sure all persons whose images are used in any Fountain 0 production are compensated by receiving a revenue participation in the film. Even small parts which might not involve incorporating major personalities will participate in the revenue generated by any film for which their image is used.”
Rogers continued, “With Sunny not only being a personality in front of the camera, but an author as well, we look forward to the potential to develop films based on her books. Writers and directors will have quite significant revenue participation in the productions they create. In that sense Sunny will participate as both a producer/writer in the revenue generated from any film but also participate in the film’s upside from her image appearing in the film as well.”
Emma Sarah Wilson, Counsel to Fountain 0, said the company has developed a comprehensive licensing framework governing the use of an individual’s image. Wilson explained, “We have developed a robust long-form licensing agreement for every individual whose image, likeness and voice may be used in a Fountain 0 production. The agreement provides clear consent and usage rights, while establishing safeguards for how reference images and voice recordings are stored and used within the studio and its projects. Our goal is to protect each individual’s privacy and control over their identity while preserving the creative flexibility and technical quality required to produce the highest quality image and voice generation.”
Ash Koosha called for all influencers and those with major social media followings to join the Fountain 0 talent directory from which their likeness can be licensed. He stated, “If one’s image or likeness is licensed with approval, a person becomes eligible to earn from what will be a fountain of film and TV episodes.” Sign up here https://join.fountain0.com.
Dreams of Violets is now streaming at Watch.Fountain0.com, and the trailer for Odysseus: The Fall is also available on the site as well. Interested viewers can sign up now to be on the list for advanced viewing of Odysseus: The Fall, scheduled for release next month.
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