Ant Boys on The Invite and AI's promise

Directed by Olivia Wilde, the film is largely set inside an apartment, where a couple (Angela and Joe, played by Wilde and Seth Rogen) have invited their neighbours (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) to dinner. “We spent a long, long time on the opening 15-20 minutes of the film,” he said, adding that during this sequence, the film puts the viewer in the shoes of Angela and Joe's characters at a difficult period in the marriage. 

“It’s like a play where we really dive in and put the audience in the characters’ shoes and allow them to feel exactly what's going on in this relationship,” he said, also addressing the delicate tonal balance between comedy and drama. Boys wanted to create tension, “but the problem is, jokes kill the tension… So how do you keep tension up when you have jokes?” 

During the conversation, Boys also shared his impression of AI. “I was a bit worried about it taking a lot of jobs," he said. "I think a lot of people would be, and now I see how it works. I think editors' jobs will be okay unless something drastic changes," he responded, adding that he is particularly interested in AI's organisational potential. "Whether you're coding or writing, you get into flow state… and what trips that up is having to find bits. It's the going into rushes, going 'oh, I know I saw that shot somewhere. Where was it?' 

"The ability to organise things in different ways and to make things more accessible, to make them work for them, that is really exciting," added Boys.