--- title: 'Werner Herzog Says AI Filmmakers Should Fail—Then Explains Why' type: 'blog post' section: 'The Argument' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'Werner Herzog has dismissed the AI-generated documentary About a Hero as “phenomenally, abysmally stupid.” His broader argument is harsher: machines can replace formula, but formula is exactly what has hollowed out too much filmmaking.' author: 'Dorothy Kwan' published: '2026-09-13' updated: '2026-09-13' about_people: - 'Werner Herzog' about_films: - 'A Hero (2021)' tags: - 'Werner Herzog AI filmmaking criticism' - 'About a Hero AI documentary' - 'Piotr Winiewicz Herzog film' - 'can AI replace human actors' - 'AI-generated films storytelling debate' sources: - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/werner-herzog-demolishes-talentless-hacks-who-use-ai-to-imitate-other-filmmakers/ar-AA2c5pde' - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/werner-herzog-invites-ai-filmmakers-143413359.html' - 'https://theplaylist.net/werner-herzog-talks-about-a-hero-ai-doc-20260908/' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/werner-herzog-says-ai-filmmakers-should-failthen-explains-why' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Werner Herzog Says AI Filmmakers Should Fail—Then Explains Why *Werner Herzog has dismissed the AI-generated documentary About a Hero as “phenomenally, abysmally stupid.” His broader argument is harsher: machines can replace formula, but formula is exactly what has hollowed out too much filmmaking.* By Dorothy Kwan, 2026-09-13 · The Argument Werner Herzog has declared the AI-generated documentary *About a Hero* a failure, and he wants the machines behind it to keep failing. In an interview reported by Yahoo on September 9, 2026, the German filmmaker rejected Piotr Winiewicz’s project, which builds a Herzog-centered story from a script generated by AI trained on Herzog’s collected work. Film readers should care because Herzog’s complaint is not about one bad imitation. He says the industry’s most replaceable material is the stuff already stripped of human storytelling. ## Herzog’s verdict on *About a Hero* is not subtle Winiewicz’s *About a Hero* screened at the 2024 IDFA documentary festival as an AI-generated “pseudo-documentary.” Its premise: an AI trained on Herzog’s work writes the script, while deepfaked talking heads and a murder mystery turn that script into a film. The real Herzog did not lend his voice or blessing. Herzog told IndieWire interviewer Ryan Lattanzio that Winiewicz wanted him to explain the project and provide his voice. Herzog refused. His response, as Yahoo reported it, was blunt: “You will fail.” He called the idea “phenomenally, abysmally stupid” and told Winiewicz to proceed alone under the banner of free speech. Then came the final hammer: “And it is a failure, period.” That is a verdict on a film Herzog has seen, not a prediction about a future project. The distinction matters. We do not know every production detail of *About a Hero*, and the reporting does not pretend to supply them. We do know the device at its center: machine-made Herzog mimicry wrapped around a pseudo-documentary form. ![Werner Herzog at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/ab97e600-fc24-46db-a0e7-86f2c19dd989.webp) *Photo: Harald Krichel · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Herzog-9290.jpg)* ## The film’s problem was mimicry with a famous man’s face The reviews were kinder than Herzog. Variety called the blend of deepfaked interviews and murder mystery “blithely incoherent,” according to Yahoo. That phrase has the exhausted ring of a critic trying to leave the building politely. Herzog did not bother with politeness. He objected to the whole transaction: take a living filmmaker’s voice, feed his old work into a system, and sell the imitation as an artistic event. The publicity language practically writes its own fog—AI, tribute, collected works, pseudo-documentary—while the actual proposition is simpler: a computer impersonates Herzog so a movie can borrow his identity. The reporting does not say that Herzog pursued legal action or tried to stop the film’s release. It says he declined participation and condemned the result. Keep the facts where they are. The insult is already doing plenty of work. ![Werner Herzog with his Golden Lion award at the 2025 Venice Film Festival](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/58e96474-a369-4eba-89ef-56ae85c11a2a.webp) ![Convidado: Werner Herzog, cineasta alemão Data: 23 de setembro de 2019 Local: Salão de Atos da UFRGS, Porto Alegre Crédito das imagens: Fronteiras do Pensamento / Luiz Munhoz](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/096f4d96-3bcf-4ba1-b2be-74e2d28837cf.webp) *Photos: Colleen Sturtevant · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Herzog_Venice_Film_Festival_2025.jpg); Fronteiras do Pensamento · [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Herzog_no_Fronteiras_do_Pensamento_Porto_Alegre_2019_(48794979567).jpg)* ## Herzog’s target expands from one project to an industry habit In the interview, Herzog widened his attack beyond Winiewicz. He argued that AI can step in when filmmaking has become standardized and storytelling has disappeared. His description of the current failure is repetition: mimic what happened before, repeat it again, then repeat it until the audience is numb. He even welcomed AI replacing “all the idiots” devoted to that cycle. That sounds like a provocation because it is one, but the point has a clean edge. If the work contains no discovery, why defend the human labor behind it? Herzog’s answer is that the machine may as well perform the imitation. At least then the production would stop pretending that repetition equals invention. This is the reversal at the heart of his position. Herzog is not claiming that humans possess a magical copyright on every image or sentence. He is saying that AI exposes a human weakness already present: a film assembled from familiar gestures can be automated because its makers have already automated themselves. ![Convidado: Werner Herzog, cineasta alemão Data: 23 de setembro de 2019 Local: Salão de Atos da UFRGS, Porto Alegre Crédito das imagens: Fronteiras do Pensamento / Luiz Munhoz](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/52d72424-40a7-4770-96bd-4c672ff7ff70.webp) ![Werner Herzog (40817487493)](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/8ec8f21f-ad71-4114-a010-26e26d845c2d.webp) *Photos: Fronteiras do Pensamento · [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Herzog_no_Fronteiras_do_Pensamento_Porto_Alegre_2019_(48794480573).jpg); Greg2600 · [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Werner_Herzog_(40817487493).jpg)* ## Why human actors remain the part AI cannot replace The material does not report a separate Herzog statement about actors, performance capture, or labor contracts. It does not establish a technical limit that makes synthetic performers impossible. So the argument here has to stay with what Herzog actually said. His complaint points to a human element that imitation cannot generate on command: a person making an unrepeatable choice. An actor brings timing, resistance, accident, embarrassment, appetite—the small disruptions that keep a scene from becoming a quotation of another scene. A system trained on past work can reproduce the surface of those choices. The reporting gives no evidence that it can originate the risk. That is why *About a Hero* lands as more than a failed experiment. Its premise turns a filmmaker into a database and calls the database a voice. Herzog’s answer is to hand the project its own logic: go ahead, imitate, repeat, and fail in public. The sharpest image left by the reporting is not a robot taking an actor’s job. It is a machine stepping into an empty chair while the humans nearby keep applauding the furniture. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Werner Herzog](https://cinepixo.com/people/werner-herzog) - 2021 · [A Hero](https://cinepixo.com/movies/a-hero-2021) ## Sources - https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/werner-herzog-demolishes-talentless-hacks-who-use-ai-to-imitate-other-filmmakers/ar-AA2c5pde - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/werner-herzog-invites-ai-filmmakers-143413359.html - https://theplaylist.net/werner-herzog-talks-about-a-hero-ai-doc-20260908/ Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/werner-herzog-says-ai-filmmakers-should-failthen-explains-why Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.