International
Millennium Films appoints Mark Gill as president
MUMBAI: Former president of Miramax Films and Warner Independent, Mark Gill has been appointed president of Millennium Films. Gill has 25 years of film business experience and a production track record of more than $1 billion at the box office.
Beginning July, Gill will work closely with Nu Image/Millennium Films heads Avi Lerner and Trevor Short and development head Boaz Davidson with focus on development, packaging, production and marketing.
“It’s a new Millennium,” Lerner has reportedly said. “Mark and I have known each other for 10 years, and have worked together very well in the past. He is highly respected in the creative community, has a strong business sense, and is a very hard worker who likes to move as quickly as we do. I am confident that we will be an extremely effective team,” he added.
Millennium Films has also announced its plans to produce and finance five to eight star-driven, wide-release films per year with budgets between $20 and $80 million.
Gill was most recently the CEO and co-founder of The Film Department, an independent movie production and finance company that is known for the film Law-Abiding Citizen, a $40 million thriller starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx.
Before that, Gill served as the founding president of Warner Independent Pictures. In his tenure, the company produced 15 films and earned 11 Oscar nominations, notable among them being March of the Penguins, Good Night and Good Luck.
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.
