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The future of filmmaking is being shaped by Utopai Studios, the Mountain View, California-based company developing, financing, producing and distributing movies and television series through a global studio operation built for the AI era.

Utopai Studios grew out of Cybever, which focused on 3D world creation and video generation, and was repositioned as a film and television studio built around AI-enabled production. Led by CEO and co-founder Cecilia Shen and co-founder and chief technology officer Jie Yang, the company has a reported $1 billion valuation — the highest independently reported valuation for a pure-play AI-native film and television studio.

The company’s strategy is to build a global studio around original productions and co-productions, develop material, back creators, finance and produce projects, and bring content to audiences across theatrical, broadcast, streaming and digital platforms. Using PAI, one of the production technologies Utopai Studios and its partners can use alongside established filmmaking tools and traditional techniques, the company can support areas such as visual development, scene planning, continuity, video generation and editing depending on the needs of a project.

Utopai Studios currently has 25 original projects in various stages of development and production, spanning theatrical, broadcast, streaming and digital releases. The three feature films highlighted below — “Half Moon,” “Cortés” and “The Most Serious Fart” — are scheduled for release in 2027. The slate also includes the series “Space Nation” and “Journey to the West: The Lost Five Hundred Years.”

Space Nation

“Space Nation,” an eight-episode sci-fi series being produced by Ex Machina Studios, is one of the first AI productions to be picked up by a traditional buyer, including Brazil’s Globoplay. Set in the near future, the story follows a new generation of elite pilots as they defend Earth against an alien threat.

Marco Weber, CEO of Ex Machina Studios, co-created the series with Martin Weisz, who is directing all eight episodes. Vanessa Coifman and Weisz wrote the series, with Weber and Coifman executive producing. The series is being co-produced by Utopai Studios and Globoplay.

Principal production is already underway and is expected to take place in alignment with Hollywood guilds. “Space Nation” is part of Ex Machina Studios’ broader partnership with K5 International, which is handling worldwide distribution.

Half Moon

Among the studio’s international co-productions is “Half Moon,” a live-action feature written and directed by Hyo-joo Yang and presented by Utopai Studios, Germany’s In Good Company and Korea’s Paper Barn Studios.

Principal photography began in Germany in August 2026, and the film is scheduled for release in 2027. PAI will support select visual elements, while the project remains grounded in live-action performances, director-led storytelling and traditional cinematic craft.

“Half Moon” explores loneliness, family trauma, belonging and emotional repair. The story follows two estranged family members who spend a fractured summer together on a remote island in the North Sea.

Yeri, a young girl who was neglected at home, and her aunt Ah-Jin, who is living in self-imposed exile and working as a caregiver while carrying the physical and psychological wounds of her past, learn to understand and respect each other over the course of the summer.

Cortés

Utopai Studios is especially enthusiastic about one of its first announced projects: “Cortés.” Set in 1519, the historical epic follows Hernán Cortés during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

“Cortés” is a Marco Weber Production for Utopai Studios and is written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and directed by Paul Mignot. It is a Paris-based production with shooting planned for September in Spain. “Cortés” is scheduled for a wide theatrical release in 2027.

The project represents a decades-long effort to bring an unusually large and expensive historical story to life. Utopai Studios will use AI-enabled production tools to help overcome the scale and cost limitations that previously kept the project from the screen, while keeping the filmmakers in control of the creative process.

A central part of Utopai Studios’ strategy is developing new entertainment IP across film and television. Working with writers, filmmakers, artists and production partners, the company is building a slate that includes original concepts, adaptations and new interpretations of culturally significant stories with the potential to reach global audiences and expand across formats. Two upcoming animated projects illustrate that approach.

The Most Serious Fart

Scheduled for wide theatrical release in 2027, “The Most Serious Fart” is based on the 2023 children’s book by Mike Bender, the screenwriter behind “Not Another Teen Movie,” and illustrator Chuck Dillon.

The animated feature follows Siegfried, an unusually serious fart who wants to change society’s perception of flatulence while searching for a sense of belonging. The irreverent premise gives way to a larger story about identity, acceptance and finding one’s place in the world.

Bender will write and direct the film, with Russell Hollander producing. Unlike some projects in Utopai Studios’ slate, “The Most Serious Fart” uses traditional filmmaking craft and traditional artists, from its production designer to its storyboard artists and animators. AI will be used alongside the human-led creative process.

Journey to the West: The Lost 500 Years

A partnership with Huace, “Journey to the West: The Lost 500 Years” demonstrates the range of Utopai Studios’ productions. While “The Most Serious Fart” is being developed as a human-led production using AI tools, “Journey to the West: The Lost Five Hundred Years” is being produced as an AI-generated animated adaptation of an origin story inspired by the classic Chinese novel.

The upcoming series reimagines the untold origin of why Sun Wukong — the Monkey King, a rebellious trickster, warrior and immortal force of nature imprisoned beneath a mountain for 500 years — would ultimately become the protector of a monk he had never met before. It is being produced for broadcast, streaming and digital distribution, with the potential for a theatrical version. Utopai Studios controls the rights outside China, providing a path for the project to reach audiences globally.

The company has also ventured into sports entertainment. Basketball stars Carmelo Anthony and James Harden have become part of Utopai Studios’ expanding entertainment ecosystem. Anthony invested in the company through his production company, Creative 7 Productions, and became a strategic partner, while Harden collaborated with Utopai Studios on an animated short inspired by his famous beard.

Looking ahead, Utopai Studios plans to continue expanding its slate and working with creators and production partners across film and television. PAI will be used where it can help teams develop and produce projects more efficiently, but it will remain one part of a broader studio operation built around stories, talent, financing, production and distribution.

Taken together, the slate offers the clearest picture yet of how the world’s largest independent AI-native film and television studio intends to operate. The role of AI changes from project to project — from supporting select visual elements in “Half Moon” and helping realize the scale of “Cortés” to serving as the primary production method for “Journey to the West.”

Rather than defining AI-native production through a single approach, Utopai Studios is building a model that gives filmmakers more ways to bring ambitious stories to the screen. With 25 projects underway, and three feature films and two series scheduled for release in 2027, the first major results of that strategy will soon reach audiences.