Summary
Rob Minkoff, co-director of The Lion King, is in advanced discussions to develop and executive-produce Particle 6’s family adventure Storm Dogs, with production planned for 2027. The story follows five dogs trying to return a separated toddler during a severe storm. Human roles would be filmed conventionally, while the child and photorealistic dogs would combine live performance, traditional filmmaking and emerging AI. Particle 6 says its process will translate actors’ facial expressions, physicality, timing and emotional choices into animated characters rather than generating performances independently. Chief executive Eline van der Velden, whose company also created the disputed synthetic actor Tilly Norwood, says creative decisions will remain with people. Technical, labor and rights details have not yet been disclosed.
Hana’s perspective
The useful experiment here is not whether AI can invent a performance on command. It is whether a production can preserve an actor’s timing and intent while using computational tools to solve shots that would be unsafe or impractical. That distinction needs more than a promise. Particle 6 should disclose how performances are captured, credited and licensed, and which final images are synthetic. If the process is genuinely performer-led, Storm Dogs could test a more accountable alternative to replacing actors with opaque outputs.
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