“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin has licensed her name and likeness to the AI startup Fountain 0, becoming one of the most high-profile figures to provide her image for use in AI-generated films and television shows.
The agreement allows the company, which has produced the AI-generated films “Dreams of Violets” and the “Odyssey” adaptation “Odysseus: The Fall,” to produce adaptations of her novels. Those films may include Hostin’s own image, the use of which the company said Hostin will control.
Hostin said in a statement that she believes “top-quality AI productions cannot only enable writers and directors to have their imaginations unleashed and no longer be tethered to budgetary constraints” but also “pioneer a new art form which can open up new dimensions for how public personalities can engage with audiences.”
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“To be able to bring my novels to life in movie and TV form, and actually have my image inserted in the productions, so that audiences can relate to me through my stories beyond my role as an author, is incredibly exciting to me,” she said. “This entire generational innovation in filmmaking from Fountain 0 gives me confidence that AI can give me a way to both more fully develop, and more fully immerse myself in, [intellectual property] I have developed.”
Fountain 0 emerged as a force within the AI and entertainment sphere with its debut of the AI-generated docudrama “Dreams of Violets,” a film directed by CEO Ash Koosha that became one of the most prominent full-length AI-generated projects to premiere at a major film festival. Koosha followed up that project last month with the similarly controversial “Odysseus: The Fall,” which starred Koosha’s likeness as the Greek hero.
“This is obviously new territory for major talent personalities,” Koosha said. “We are incredibly gratified that Sunny is willing to be the talent pioneer willing to step out and take advantage of this new form of creative expression. Sunny, of course, will be able to decide which of her works she develops into a film, and what roles her image can be incorporated into under a licensing agreement which gives her strict control over how her image can be used.”
Hostin has previously tried to bring some of her books, including her 2022 series “Summer on the Bluffs,” to the screen, including through her production company Roots & Wings Productions. Her decision to license her likeness and rights to her books reflects the shifting conversation around AI licensing beyond intellectual property such as characters and catalogues into personalities themselves. Higgsfield, another AI creative startup, licensed the likenesses of the streamer N3on and UFC’s Israel Adesanya and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, among others, for its most recent film “Cully Hill Boys.”
“I feel particularly strongly that there is a need to bring stories to the big screen that are more in tune with the lives of diverse audiences that Hollywood focuses too little on, and I believe Fountain 0’s AI productions can have a major impact on responding to the interests of these underserved audiences,” Hostin said.