Trying to Pick the Winning Side

A redesigned The Wizard of Oz is currently playing at Las Vegas’ The Sphere, a new venue that has managed to dazzle audiences with how it can use its vast array of curved screens for visual effects during live performances. The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939, was obviously not made with such an experience in mind, but that didn’t stop Warner Bros. (who owns the rights to The Wizard of Oz) or the owners of The Sphere or those who thought they could use A.I. technology to make a film that’s in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio fit a dome. Most discouraging was Ben Mankiewicz, the face of Turner Classic Movies, stumping for this bizarre experiment on CBS Sunday Morning. When asked how this was any different than the colorization of classic films (something TCM refused to show), Mankiewicz responded on Twitter:

It’s kind of stunning how almost every sentence of this is wrong, but it’s the thesis of Mankiewicz’ argument that rings particularly hollow: “But [A.I.] is here. We must accept that.” Setting aside how much this sounds like what happens when people get turned into space zombies by the Borg in Star Trek (“You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”), it’s also an empty refrain you hear from A.I. advocates: The future is already here. It’s a fait accompli.

This is a non-argument because it’s not engaging with the merits of the technology. When Mankiewicz tries to claim what the technology does, he sounds ridiculous, claiming that the generative A.I. here is “completing work Fleming and LeRoy would have if it were possible.” Again, there’s not an ounce of truth in that statement. There’s no evidence director Victor Fleming or producer Mervyn LeRoy would have wanted to take advantage of a gigantic dome had one been available. Nor is there any evidence that their vision for the film was to force all the action to the bottom of the frame so that it looks like Dorothy and her pals are on the Windows XP desktop: