AI or Artistic Theft? Amazon-Backed Startup Rewrites Orson Welles

A startup backed by Amazon is turning heads with a daring project of recreating the lost 43 minutes of Orson Welles’ 1942 classic, The Magnificent Ambersons. Fable, co-founded in January 2018 by Edward Saatchi and Pete Billington, is often described as the “Netflix of AI.” It built its reputation by letting users spin up their own animated stories and even making headlines with unauthorized South Park episodes, but venturing into one of cinema’s most revered lost films pushes the boundaries of technology and art.

While the project is being hailed by some as an innovative fusion of technology and cinema, others view it as a controversial and ethically questionable effort that risks overshadowing the original artistic vision of one of film's greatest directors.

The Ambitious Project

Fable’s initiative, undertaken through its Showrunner platform, aims to digitally recreate the missing footage from Welles’ film, which was heavily edited and partially destroyed by RKO Pictures during its original release. 

The reconstruction relies on FILM-1, Fable’s proprietary narrative AI model, designed to generate long-form, coherent cinematic sequences. The process begins with archival resources, production notes, surviving still photographs, blueprints of sets, and continuity scripts. These fragments provide a structural guide. Contemporary actors are then filmed performing the lost scenes, with their faces digitally remapped to resemble Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, and Agnes Moorehead. Lighting, staging, and camera movements are programmed to mirror Welles’ techniques, while AI stitching algorithms ensure the new footage integrates seamlessly with the surviving reels.