{"slug": "inside-goodfellas-director-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild", "title": "Inside ‘Goodfellas’ director Martin Scorsese’s secret sit-down with Hollywood guild over AI", "summary": "Martin Scorsese's role as an advisor to AI firm Black Forest Labs has sparked backlash from the Art Directors Guild, which accused the director of betraying human artists. Scorsese's team held a phone meeting with guild president Dina Lipton to address concerns, but further talks have stalled. The guild fears Scorsese's endorsement of generative AI could set a dangerous precedent for below-the-line workers.", "body_md": "The feud between one of the world’s greatest living artists — **Martin Scorsese** — and a major Hollywood guild over his involvement in an AI startup seems to be escalating.\n\nWhile Scorsese isn’t the only big name to get on the AI hype train — **Darren Aronofsky**, **Ben Affleck**, **James Cameron **and **Steven Soderbergh** all have their hands in the new technology in one way or another — Scorsese’s embrace of AI seems to have cut the deepest.\n\nEarlier this month, Scorsese joined AI firm Black Forest Labs as an [advisor](https://bfl.ai/martin-scorsese-bfl-advisor). When his new role was announced, the company released a promo video in which the 83-year-old uses Black Forest’s FLUX generative-AI model to help storyboard a scene.\n\n“There’s always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew,” Scorsese tells Black Forest CEO **Robin Rombach **during a storyboarding session at his New York office.\n\nScorsese dictates a particular scene he wants to see (which looks like an old medieval-esque village) before it’s created almost instantaneously. Scorsese then mentions how this tool puts more power in the hands of the filmmakers themselves. “You do have that control of making the film rather than doing it solely through verbal language,” he says.\n\nThe Art Director’s Guild, which represents nearly 3,000 below-the-line workers including storyboard artists, production designers and illustrators, was incensed and promptly put out a statement accusing the “Goodfellas” director of “turning his back on the human artists.”\n\n“He specifically mentioned storyboard artists, he didn’t just say jobs in general or tasks in general,” a source close to the guild told Page Six Hollywood. The guild’s illustrators, who are “on the front line of folks who will be replaced first” by AI, were also up in arms, the source continued.\n\nShortly after the ADG’s statement, Scorsese’s team reached out to the guild, per two sources with the knowledge of the discussions, to make peace.\n\nDuring a phone meeting with the guild’s president, **Dina Lipton**, Scorsese’s reps attempted to assuage concerns by saying how the director has always had a great relationship with below-the-line workers. But attempts to set up a call with their AI committee have since gone cold.\n\nReps for Scorsese did not respond for comment.\n\nSome of Scorsese’s most timeless films, including “Hugo” and “The Aviator,” have been honored with multiple below-the-line Oscars, and the fear among guild members is that if this tech becomes totally normalized among titans like Scorsese, it sets an extremely worrisome precedent.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-goodfellas-director-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild", "canonical_source": "https://pagesix.com/2026/07/01/hollywood/inside-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild-over-ai/", "published_at": "2026-07-01 13:45:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-01 13:54:27.756587+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "ai-ethics", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Martin Scorsese", "Black Forest Labs", "Art Directors Guild", "Dina Lipton", "Robin Rombach", "Darren Aronofsky", "Ben Affleck", "James Cameron"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-goodfellas-director-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-goodfellas-director-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-goodfellas-director-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/inside-goodfellas-director-martin-scorseses-secret-sit-down-with-hollywood-guild.jsonld"}}