On Friday, a startup called Fable announced [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/orson-welles-lost-movie-ai-1236361881/] an ambitious, if head-scratching, plan to recreate the lost 43 minutes of Orson Welles’ classic film “The Magnificent Ambersons.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnificent_Ambersons_(film)] Why is a startup that bills itself as the “Netflix of AI,” and that recently raised money from Amazon’s Alexa Fund [https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/netflix-of-ai-amazon-invests-fable-showrunner-launch-1236471989/], talking about remaking a movie that was first released in 1942? Well, the company has built a platform that allows users to create their own cartoons with AI prompts — Fable is starting out with its own intellectual property, but it has ambitions to offer similar capabilities with Hollywood IP [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/762594/fable-showrunner-edwatch-saatchi-interview]. In fact, it’s already been used to create unauthorized “South Park” episodes [https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2023/07/18/new-showrunner-ai-the-sum-of-all-hollywoods-fears/]. Now Fable is launching a new AI model that can supposedly generate long, complex narratives. Over the next two years, filmmaker Brian Rose — who has already spent five years [https://wellesnet.com/magnificent-ambersons-reconstruction-done/] working to digitally reconstruct Welles’ original vision — plans to use that model to remake the lost footage from “The Magnificent Ambersons.” Remarkably, Fable has not obtained the rights to the film, making this a prospective tech demo that will probably never be released to the general public. Why “Ambersons”? If you’re not a Welles-loving cinephile, I’m guessing it sounds like an obscure choice for digital resurrection. Even among classic movie buffs, Welles’ second film is overshadowed by its older, more famous sibling. While “Citizen Kane” is often called the greatest movie ever made, “Ambersons” is remembered as a lost masterpiece [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/07/the-shadow] that the studio took out of the director’s hands, dramatically cutting it down and adding an unconvincing happy ending. Techcrunch event 10K TECH LEADERS, 250+ TOP VOICES, 200+ SESSIONS, INFINITE OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONNECTIONS — ONLY AT DISRUPT 2025 NETFLIX, BOX, A16Z, ELEVENLABS, WAYVE, SEQUOIA CAPITAL, ELAD GIL — JUST A FEW OF THE HEAVY HITTERS JOINING THE DISRUPT 2025 AGENDA. THEY’RE HERE TO DELIVER THE INSIGHTS THAT FUEL STARTUP GROWTH AND SHARPEN YOUR EDGE. DON’T MISS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF TECHCRUNCH, AND A CHANCE TO LEARN FROM THE TOP VOICES IN TECH. GRAB YOUR TICKET BEFORE SEPT 26 AND SAVE UP TO $668. TECH AND VC HEAVYWEIGHTS JOIN THE DISRUPT 2025 AGENDA NETFLIX, ELEVENLABS, WAYVE, SEQUOIA CAPITAL — JUST A FEW OF THE HEAVY HITTERS JOINING THE DISRUPT 2025 AGENDA. THEY’RE HERE TO DELIVER THE INSIGHTS THAT FUEL STARTUP GROWTH AND SHARPEN YOUR EDGE. DON’T MISS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF TECHCRUNCH