International
Drac Studios ventures into film production
MUMBAI: With its bid to get into films, special effects and makeup house Drac Studios has entered motion picture production and has opened Drac Studios Louisiana and has also gone into pre-production on its first live-action feature, Dead in the Water.
The film written by Si Dunn will be produced by Drac president Harvey Lowry and directed by Rob Walker.
Said Lowry, “With all of the indie and studio films being shot in Louisiana, it was an easy decision to open a facility in the state.Now we can offer other producers the Louisiana tax incentives for our special effects and makeup effects as well as take advantage of them ourselves for our own productions.”
The company has leased a space in Baton Rouge‘s Raleigh Studios Celtic Media Center.
The creative team behind Drac — Lowry, Todd Tucker and Ron Halvas, with creative direction by Greg Cannom — has won Oscars for Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and been nominated for Titanic and The Passion of the Christ among other films.
Drac had been doing effects for Louisiana productions The Mortician directed by Gareth Maxwell Roberts and Area 51 being produced by Courtney Solomon and Moshe Diamant that are in pre-production stage.
International
Utopai Studios unveils 4K three-minute video generation for PAI platform
New Story Agent and editing tools aim to streamline AI-led filmmaking workflows
MUMBAI: Utopai Studios has announced a major upgrade to its PAI storytelling AI platform, introducing what it claims is an industry-first capability to generate three-minute videos in 4K resolution, alongside enhancements to its Story Agent feature.
The update, rolling out from April 15, expands the platform’s capabilities across the filmmaking process, from early concept development to post-production. The company said the new features are designed to help filmmakers maintain continuity across characters, scenes and visual styles, a key challenge in AI-driven storytelling.
At the heart of the release is a next-generation model that enables more structured narrative development, allowing creators to move more seamlessly from idea to execution. With tools such as multi-shot sequencing and multi-turn editing, the platform aims to give both studios and independent creators greater control over complex storytelling workflows.
Commenting on the launch, Utopai Studios co-founder and CTO Jie Yang said, “The next phase of AI in media will not be defined by isolated tools, but by systems that can carry story, continuity and collaboration across the full creative process.” He added that the update is a step towards enabling more practical, end-to-end narrative development at a professional level.
Echoing this, Utopai Studios co-founder and chief scientific officer Zijian He said, “Generative video is opening the door to a new production model, where creative ambition is less constrained by traditional cost and complexity.” He noted that the platform combines multimodal models with iterative editing to give creators more speed, control and consistency.
The company said PAI is already being used in professional film and television productions, particularly in Hollywood, for tasks such as pre-visualisation, scene design and post-production refinements. The latest update adds features including improved voice options, character consistency, unlimited editing and more flexible asset management.
Utopai also emphasised that its models are not trained on copyrighted material, positioning the platform as a cleaner alternative for creators and rights holders navigating the evolving AI landscape.
As AI continues to reshape content creation, Utopai’s latest push signals a shift from standalone tools to integrated systems, aiming to make high-quality filmmaking faster, more flexible and increasingly accessible.
