AI studio Authors First raises $10M to adapt books for screen
What's the deal? Authors FirstDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an AI studio helping writers adapt their books for the screen, has launched with a $10 million seed round. Founder Robert Hamwee, a private equity veteran, leads the company as chief executive officer.
Who's backing it? The round includes Hamwee himself, venture firm Brand Foundry, and investors Andy Mills, Mike Duggal, John Kline, Robert Hamwee, and the family office of David Blitzer. Hamwee's leadership team includes veterans of Hulu, Warner Bros.Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and UniversalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
What's the endgame? The studio targets science-fiction and fantasy authors, promising adaptations that stay close to their original vision. It combines AI generators such as Seedance 2.5 and Nano Banana with visual effects tools like Blender to sidestep the budget limits of traditional Hollywood productions.
What's the product? Its first project is Genghis: Birth of an Empire , an adaptation of Conn Iggulden's 2007 book Wolf of the Plains . Roughly 25 people worked on the story, camera angles, and dialogue, though the project was mostly AI-generated.
Iggulden said the book would never have been adapted otherwise, as earlier offers collapsed over the budget a historical epic required. The film would have demanded "significant capital and years of filming on location across thousands of miles of remote Mongolian landscape," he said.
Why it matters. "We built Authors First to give them full creative control and modern tools so production budgets no longer dictate what's possible on screen," Hamwee said.
The signal: The launch comes amid a rush of companies using AI for book adaptations. Utopai StudiosDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is adapting Mike Bender's The Most Serious Fart and the Chinese classic Journey to the West , while Intelligent AnimationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is adapting The Dragon Prince's Bride for microseries platform aTwistDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Read more: Variety
Image credit: Dave Catchpole
