International
Rupert Mudoch bereaved; cancels party of Life of Pi
MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch has canceled the award season party of Ang Lee‘s Life of Pi because of the death of his mother Dame Elisabeth Murdoch aged 103 on Tuesday.
The cocktail party was scheduled to be held Wednesday night at Murdoch‘s Fifth Avenue home in New York.
Guests were to have included Lee and Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman-CEO Jim Gianopulos, as well as several awards tastemakers and Hollywood insiders.
Life of Pi was produced and financed by 20th Century Fox, the studio owned by Murdoch‘s News Corp. "Life of Pi masterpiece movie released last night. All at Fox rightly proud. Congrats to Liz Gabler [president of Fox 2000]," tweeted Murdoch following the film‘s 21 November opening.
Fox is waging an aggressive awards campaign for Lee‘s film, which has grossed north of $51 million domestically since opening during the long Thanksgiving holiday. Life of Pi is doing big business in Asia, where it has raked in roughly $53 million in China alone. All told, the movie has brought in $81 million internationally from only 11 markets.
Several studios are throwing similar parties and receptions touting their awards-season films.
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.
