Matthew Modine Joins ‘I Hope This Helps!’ As EP; Doc Uses Satire, Whimsy And Furry Blue Creature To Explore Dangers, Promise Of AI
EXCLUSIVE: Actor-producer Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff’s Cinco Dedos Peliculas production company have signed on as executive producers of I Hope This Helps!, a documentary that explores the promise and peril of artificial intelligence.
Writer-director Daniel Freed enlisted Google’s AI chatbot Bard to help create the documentary, described as a “humorous, genre-bending hybrid film” that invites viewers to ponder “the evolving relationship between humanity and technology.”
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Responding to prompts from the filmmaker, Google’s Bard fashioned a furry blue creature with big eyes to (one imagines) lessen the menacing specter of AI.
“Artificial intelligence is the most important, life-altering technological advancement in modern human history. Full stop,” Modine said in a statement. As a SAG-AFTRA board member, Modine was deeply engaged in the contentious contract talks last year between the actors’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a dispute that was only resolved after a nearly four-month-long strike. AI became one of the main sticking points in those negotiations, with actors insisting on protections for how the technology would be used in film and television production.
“Science fiction literature, television shows, and movies have repeatedly presented stories that depict the multitude of potential dangers of artificial intelligence for all of us. As often happens, science fiction becomes science fact. And here we are. The A.I. tail wagging the A.I. dog,” Modine continued in his statement. “The gatekeepers of A.I. possess the power to alter and control human behavior in ways that were unimaginable just a half century ago. Daniel Freed’s new documentary film uses satire and whimsy to question whether or not the benefits of A.I. might outweigh the many risks. Adam Rackoff and I and Cinco Dedos Peliculas are thrilled to join the I Hope This Helps! team. This is a film that needs to be seen.”
I Hope This Helps! premiered in May at the prestigious DocLands Documentary Film Festival in San Rafael, California. It will continue a festival run before wider distribution plans are announced.
“This project began as an effort to bring more people into the conversation about how A.I. is changing the world we live in,” Freed noted. “We are beyond thrilled to have Matthew and Adam partner with us,” said Daniel Freed. “Not only do they have a wealth of experience in the world of independent film, Matthew has thought deeply about artificial intelligence in his roles as an actor and as an advocate for other actors. Having pondered the theme of technology’s unintended consequences on humanity in Oppenheimer, he also eloquently shared his thoughts about A.I. while working on the recent SAG-AFTRA negotiations.”
I Hope This Helps! is written and directed by Daniel Freed and features the work of cinematographer Brendan Hubbard, editor Joshua Bowen, and composer John E. Low — all of whom previously worked together on CNBC’s white-collar crime documentary series American Greed.
Cinco Dedos Peliculas (CDP) is a film and new media production company co-founded by Modine with producer and former Apple marketing executive Adam Rackoff. Modine and Rackoff have executive produced several award-winning films, environmental documentaries, and animated features, including Against the Current (2021) and My Love Affair with Marriage (2023). Their recent documentary, Downwind, chronicles the fallout from decades of nuclear bomb testing on American soil. Downwind is narrated by Martin Sheen and features Michael Douglas, Lewis Black, and John Wayne’s son, Patrick.
Freed worked for 12 years as senior producer and writer for CNBC’s American Greed. He is the co-author of Call Me Commander: A Former Intelligence Officer and the Journalists Who Uncovered His Scheme to Fleece America, a non-fiction book detailing an audacious charity fraud orchestrated by a man while he was wanted by the FBI for questioning in an espionage investigation. His work for television and print has been aired or published by PBS, Current TV, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.
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