Okay, I’m slightly less mad about that ‘Magnificent Ambersons’ AI project

Image: Scene from the film “The Magnificent Ambersons”. The image was published as a public domain lobby card in 1942. Image credit: RKO Radio Pictures via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. Article by Anthony Ha. TechCrunch – February 8, 2026.

When a startup announced plans last fall to recreate lost footage from Orson Welles’ classic film “The Magnificent Ambersons” using generative AI, I was skeptical. More than that, I was baffled why anyone would spend time and money on something that seemed guaranteed to outrage cinephiles while offering negligible commercial value. This week, an in-depth profile by the New Yorker’s Michael Schulman provides more details about the project. If nothing else, it helps explain why the startup Fable and its founder Edward Saatchi are pursuing it: It seems to come from a genuine love of Welles and his work. […]

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