Paul Schrader Posits ChatGPT Can Write “Original” And “Fleshed Out” Movie Scripts​on January 19, 2025 at 11:57 pm

In stark contrast to a number of Hollywood creatives, Oscar-nominated writer/director Paul Schrader posits ChatGPT can write “original” and “fleshed out” screenplays.

The Oh, Canada screenwriter posted on Facebook that he asked the generative artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to come up with an idea for a film for a variety of renowned filmmakers, including himself, and that the results were more than satisfactory.

“I’M STUNNED. I just asked chatgpt for ‘an idea for Paul Schrader film.’ Then Paul Thomas Anderson. Then Quentin Tarantino. Then Harmony Korine. Then Ingmar Bergman. Then Rossellini. Lang. Scorsese. Murnau. Capra. Ford. Speilberg [sic]. Lynch,” he began in the post.

Schrader concluded, “Every idea chatgpt came up with (in a few seconds) was good. And original. And fleshed out. Why should writers sit around for months searching for a good idea when AI can provide one in seconds?”

Naturally, the thought didn’t go over well with various commenters, who said AI would have to rely on preexistent writers and their material to craft something supposedly new.

Though many in the entertainment industry have decried AI encroachment, like Nicolas Cage and Cate Blanchett, Schrader has been previously positive about its usage in filmmaking. During the WGA strike in 2023, the Taxi Driver scribe weighed in on the debate amid negotiations, claiming that the guild doesn’t “fear AI as much as it fears not getting paid” and that AI can produce a new episode of CSI: Vegas “in a matter of seconds. And it will be good, it will cull all the episodes of CSI for the last 20 years and come up with something both generic and contemporary.”