{"slug": "darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of", "title": "Darren Aronofsky’s Company That Makes Very Bad AI Movies Just Raised a Ton of Investor Money", "summary": "Darren Aronofsky's AI film studio Primordial Soup has raised $11 million of a planned $15 million equity round, according to an SEC filing. The company, co-founded by Aronofsky and producer Dylan Golden, previously released poorly received AI-generated shorts about the founding fathers in partnership with Time, Google DeepMind, and Salesforce. Aronofsky's track record with high-tech projects, including a Sphere film that grossed $44.5 million in one quarter, is attracting investor interest despite the studio's early output being widely criticized as slop.", "body_md": "Sorry in advance for this, but: do you remember back in January when Darren Aronofsky, director of [the best movie ever made](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pis65YhDNC4) [about computers and math](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pis65YhDNC4), produced a series of AI shorts about the founding fathers, and [they sucked](https://gizmodo.com/darren-aronofskys-new-ai-series-about-the-revolutionary-war-looks-like-dogshit-2000715754)?\n\nNo? Here, let me jog your memory:\n\nIf you can make it through that entire clip, you’ll notice at the very end there’s a logo for something called Primordial Soup. Primordial Soup [calls itself](https://www.primordialsoup.ai/head-of-studio) “an AI-native storytelling studio founded by acclaimed filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.” Vanity Fair [says](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/ai-the-elephant-in-the-room-hollywood-cant-stop-talking-about) the company has an unofficial motto: “Make soup not slop,” which maybe it will do at some point. Many of them are even less appealing than the one above, particularly [whenever Benjamin Franklin is involved](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOgEVCPpBe4), for some reason.\n\nAt any rate, Aronofsky’s company is raking in investor money as it staffs up, [according to the Hollywood Reporter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/darren-aronofsky-raising-money-ai-film-studio-1236654262/). An SEC filing says the company, of which producer Dylan Golden is also an executive officer in addition to Aronofsky, is seeking $15 million in the form of an equity raise, and $11 million of that has already come in.\n\nThere are [tons of projects like this](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/ai-films-promise-sharknado-doctor-who-1236648616/) now, and as a human being who makes money by expressing himself creatively, it pains me to report that not all of them have been disasters.\n\nFor instance, while it probably is not on your radar if you are a Gizmodo reader, the conservative company Angel Studios released a biopic of George Washington earlier this month, and it was [generally](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/young-washington/critic-reviews/) regarded as [mostly fine, if generic](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/young-washington-review-angel-studios/). The makers of that movie, however, [smuggled in a ton of AI effects](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/young-washington-director-jon-erwin-ai-1236801002/), which didn’t really get much attention. They apparently weren’t bad enough to make it a laughingstock because it’s [been a modest box office hit](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/minions-and-monsters-young-washington-box-office-sky-itv-1236802981/).\n\nAnd when you consider that Primordial Soup’s founding fathers clips were a project of inscrutable lineage, but [apparently made as a partnership between](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/darren-aronofsky-google-deepmind-salesforce-182257049.html) Time, Google Deepmind, and—of all companies—Salesforce, a clearer picture emerges of why Aronofsky might be doing this: people are willing to throw money at it, and, perhaps more to the point, *at him.*\n\nRemember, a film by Aronofsky was part of the breathtakingly lucrative opening slate of events at the Sphere in Las Vegas. His project alone grossed [$44.5 million for the Sphere](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/las-vegas-sphere-earned-astonishing-153222582.html) in one quarter, out-earning the Sphere’s U2 performance. And if you watch [videos of people reacting to Aronofsky’s Sphere movie](https://youtu.be/YjgnniAi1r0?t=254), it honestly seems like money well spent.\n\nAnd Primordial Soup already says it plans to make “[branded content,](https://www.primordialsoup.ai/head-of-studio)” as part of its content plan. So it seems reasonable to deduce that with all the tech- and AI-curious brands and investors out there looking to partner with a familiar name, one that’s been attached in the past to successful hi-tech filmmaking projects, Aronofsky probably sounds like what they’re looking for. So I wouldn’t bet against this company.\n\nBut then again, it did make this:", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of", "canonical_source": "https://gizmodo.com/darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of-investor-money-2000789515", "published_at": "2026-07-23 01:19:09+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 01:29:15.675051+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "ai-startups", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Darren Aronofsky", "Primordial Soup", "Dylan Golden", "Google DeepMind", "Salesforce", "Time", "Angel Studios", "Sphere"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/darren-aronofskys-company-that-makes-very-bad-ai-movies-just-raised-a-ton-of.jsonld"}}