--- title: 'Danny Boyle’s ‘Ink’ Uses AI for 30 Seconds—and Owns the Choice' type: 'blog post' section: 'The Argument' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'Danny Boyle confirmed at Telluride that generative AI appears in roughly 30 seconds of ‘Ink,’ including animated archival photographs and newsroom mice. The film reaches U.S. cinemas in December before its Netflix debut in January 2027.' author: 'Dorothy Kwan' published: '2026-09-09' updated: '2026-09-09' about_people: - 'Danny Boyle' tags: - 'Danny Boyle Ink AI use' - 'Ink movie generative AI mice' - 'Danny Boyle Vanity Fair Telluride interview' - 'Ink Netflix release date 2027' - 'Rupert Murdoch Larry Lamb film' sources: - 'https://geektyrant.com/news/danny-boyle-confirms-he-used-ai-in-his-new-movie-ink' - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/oscar-winner-confirms-controversial-ai-201031560.html' - 'https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/danny_boyle_confirms_ai_use_in_ink/s1_17465_44265289' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/ink-danny-boyle-confirms-generative-ai-use-in-new-movie/ar-AA2bFvWW' - 'https://deadline.com/2026/09/danny-boyle-confirms-use-of-ai-in-new-movie-ink-1237069099/' - 'https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1415088-danny-boyle-explains-how-he-embraced-ai-for-ink' - 'https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/danny-boyle-confirms-generative-ai-used-in-upcoming-rupert-murdoch-film-ink/cid/2178574' - 'https://fictionhorizon.com/danny-boyle-confirms-he-used-ai-in-ink-and-explains-exactly-how-much/' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/danny-boyles-ink-uses-ai-for-30-secondsand-owns-the-choice' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Danny Boyle’s ‘Ink’ Uses AI for 30 Seconds—and Owns the Choice *Danny Boyle confirmed at Telluride that generative AI appears in roughly 30 seconds of ‘Ink,’ including animated archival photographs and newsroom mice. The film reaches U.S. cinemas in December before its Netflix debut in January 2027.* By Dorothy Kwan, 2026-09-09 · The Argument Danny Boyle has confirmed that generative AI appears in about 30 seconds of his new film, *Ink*, which charts the rise of Britain’s *Sun* newspaper. He made the disclosure in a Vanity Fair interview from the Telluride Film Festival on September 5, 2026, after the film’s Venice premiere prompted viewers to wonder whether archival images had been digitally animated. For film readers, the news is less about a few seconds of synthetic motion than about a famous director saying exactly where the machine entered the room. ## Boyle Says the AI Is in Old Photographs—and Mice “There’s about 30 seconds of it in our movie where we animate a couple of old photographs,” Boyle told Vanity Fair, as reported by GeekTyrant, Deadline and several other outlets. He then added the detail that gives this story its odd little tail: “Oh, and there’s some mice.” The AI-generated rodents run around the *Sun* newsroom. That answer appears to settle speculation about images of the Kray brothers and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Viewers had raised the question online after *Ink* opened at Venice. Deadline reported that Boyle’s comments indicate the archival-style sequences did use AI. Claims that the end credits disclose the technology remain unconfirmed by the production, so the credits question stays exactly where it was: unresolved. The mouse explanation has a backstory. Boyle said he got “in trouble” with PETA after using real chimpanzees while making *28 Days Later*. Since then, he has tried to avoid real animals in his productions when possible. AI, in his telling, offers a practical way to send tiny creatures sprinting through a newsroom without putting actual animals on set. A modest use case, yes. Also a sentence that sounds like it wandered in from a very strange production meeting. ![Danny Boyle Director, Movie INK at the 83rd Venice FILM festival-28](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/3c5c4b47-796f-48f5-aa27-4814d98fbbbe.webp) *Photo: LucaFazPhoto · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danny_Boyle_at_the_83rd_Venice_FILM_festival-27.jpg)* ## ‘Ink’ Is About The Sun, Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb The film follows *The Sun*’s rise in the 1970s under editor Larry Lamb, who had been recruited from the *Daily Mirror* in 1969 by Rupert Murdoch, then an emerging media mogul. Jack O’Connell plays Lamb, Guy Pearce plays Murdoch, and Claire Foy appears as Jules Davies, Lamb’s wife. Studiocanal and Netflix produced the film, with James Graham adapting his own stage play for the screenplay. The publicity copy calls *Ink* “an explosive cinematic rollercoaster” about “visionaries and misfits” inventing a new kind of news. That tells you almost nothing, except that a marketing department has discovered adjectives. The actual subject is sharper: how a tabloid operation built an audience by deciding what “the people” wanted, and how that model helped reshape British journalism. The film opened Venice, moved to Telluride and has drawn largely positive notices. Deadline reported an 85 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. *Ink* is scheduled for U.S. theatrical release in December, with Netflix streaming to follow in January; Yahoo’s report gives the dates as December 11, 2026, in select theaters and January 8, 2027, on Netflix. ![Danny Boyle au MK2 Bibliothèque dans le cadre d'une projection spéciale de "28 jours plus tard", en prévision de la sortie de "28 ans plus tard", le 3 juin 2025.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/d9290cb4-88f2-4d8a-b314-0914efe0e533.webp) ![Danny Boyle, Jodie Comer et Aaron Taylor-Johnson au MK2 Bibliothèque dans le cadre d'une projection spéciale de "28 jours plus tard", en prévision de la sortie de "28 ans plus tard", le 3 juin 2025.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/0cd2237c-5bdb-4e5f-85fa-f8652e69d6cc.webp) *Photos: ManoSolo13241324 · [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) · [source 1](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danny_Boyle_2025.jpg), [source 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danny_Boyle,_Jodie_Comer_et_Aaron_Taylor-Johnson_2025_2.jpg)* ## Boyle’s Defense Comes With a Condition Boyle did not present AI as a sacred breakthrough or pretend the argument had ended. He said, “It doesn’t really matter what I think about AI. It matters what 20-year-olds think about it.” His own view: the technology can be “a very useful tool” if used respectfully, with one blunt condition—actors must be paid if filmmakers replace them with an AI embodiment. That is a narrow defense, and it matters that it is narrow. Boyle is not claiming that every digital shortcut deserves applause. He is saying this application—animating photographs and creating mice—belongs in a different category from replacing performers. Whether audiences agree is another matter, but at least the boundary is visible. At Venice, Boyle raised a separate worry about journalism. He warned that technology companies could replace reporters with cheaper, more efficient AI journalists, then asked whether such a system would “speak truth to the power that created it.” The irony is sitting right there: *Ink* dramatizes the birth of a newspaper built to seize attention, while its director worries about automated media answering to its owners. ![Danny Boyle, Jodie Comer et Aaron Taylor-Johnson au MK2 Bibliothèque dans le cadre d'une projection spéciale de "28 jours plus tard", en prévision de la sortie de "28 ans plus tard", le 3 juin 2025.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/50d8741f-9272-4269-9c7f-bc86f3ed94dd.webp) ![Danny Boyle, Mark Kermode and Brian Cox at Winter Shuffle 2013](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/1bb0f638-87e8-446c-830a-350b7bbf12cc.webp) *Photos: ManoSolo13241324 · [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danny_Boyle,_Jodie_Comer_et_Aaron_Taylor-Johnson_2025_1.jpg); Kierjohnmill · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danny_Boyle,_Mark_Kermode_and_Brian_Cox_at_Winter_Shuffle_2013.jpg)* ## The Real Test Is Disclosure, Not the Mouse Count AI remains one of filmmaking’s fiercest disputes, and Boyle’s candor will not cool it. Some viewers quoted by Deadline called the choice unacceptable; others argued that limited visual-effects use is practical. There is no settled audience consensus, and the production has not confirmed the end-credit disclosure. Still, Boyle did something many filmmakers avoid: he named the approximate duration and described the shots. That makes the decision easier to examine. Thirty seconds can be a harmless technical choice, a labor warning, or both, depending on what happens to the people who would otherwise have made those images. For now, the firm facts are small and concrete. Two old photographs. Some running mice. A film about the newspaper that helped turn provocation into a business model. The machines get thirty seconds; the argument gets the rest of the year. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Danny Boyle](https://cinepixo.com/people/danny-boyle) ## Sources - https://geektyrant.com/news/danny-boyle-confirms-he-used-ai-in-his-new-movie-ink - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/oscar-winner-confirms-controversial-ai-201031560.html - https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/danny_boyle_confirms_ai_use_in_ink/s1_17465_44265289 - https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/ink-danny-boyle-confirms-generative-ai-use-in-new-movie/ar-AA2bFvWW - https://deadline.com/2026/09/danny-boyle-confirms-use-of-ai-in-new-movie-ink-1237069099/ - https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1415088-danny-boyle-explains-how-he-embraced-ai-for-ink - https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/danny-boyle-confirms-generative-ai-used-in-upcoming-rupert-murdoch-film-ink/cid/2178574 - https://fictionhorizon.com/danny-boyle-confirms-he-used-ai-in-ink-and-explains-exactly-how-much/ Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/danny-boyles-ink-uses-ai-for-30-secondsand-owns-the-choice Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.