“Stop That Train” director Adam Shankman defended the RuPaul Charles-starring film after social-media chatter over the weekend accusing the filmmakers of relying on generative AI — calling such claims “patently not true.”
“Every shot in ‘Stop! That! Train!’ was made by human hands!” Shankman wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday. “There are a sum total of ZERO shots conceived by AI in the movie. We employed hundreds of VFX artists who all killed themselves getting this out for release and not one job was taken out of human hands. The movie is a fully human made piece of joy and laughter. Take it in and enjoy it yall! We need the laughter!”
The statement came after multiple X posts over the weekend alleged that the film used generative AI. In the “Airplane”-esque comedy, RuPaul play President Judy Gagwell as she and a cast of comedians and drag queens (“RuPaul’s Drag Race” alums Ginger Mini, Jujubee and Brooke Lynn Hytes among them) try to stop a runaway high-speed train, the Glamazon Express, from crashing into a fictional natural disaster, a “Stormaganza.”
“RuPaul movie apparently confirmed to contain mass amounts of genAI with the top billed VFX company literally being AI-based… secret blessing that shit ain’t playing in the UK,” one commenter on X commented.
“Girlfriend just made a pained sound on FaceTime and when I asked what was wrong they said ‘there’s a ton of AI in the new RuPaul movie,’” read another X post.
Some of the comments referred to the work of Acme AI and FX on the film, which was reported by the Village Voice. The firm, co-founded by former Relativity Media executive Ryan Kavanaugh, has touted its ability to shorten production schedules and help reduce budgets by filming on a “gray box” soundstage while AI generates the location imagery, such as on the upcoming Doug Liman film “Bitcoin.”
A source familiar with the production told Variety that Acme AI was contracted exclusively for its visual effects work and any AI use was limited to background workflow processes — and not anything that appeared on screen.
The accusations also came after an April episode of “Drag Race” featured RuPaul “painting” images of the season’s final four contenders that appeared to be AI-generated, prompting a wave of social media fury. RuPaul did not comment on the allegations, and “Drag Race” production company World of Wonder did not respond to a request for comment.
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