AceShowbiz - Grimes has boarded Gods Don't Give Gifts, the first AI-generated feature film to secure a theatrical release. The popstar voices Zayinth Alda, a disaffected NiiroCore aristocrat and niece to Caen Halvorith, the inventor of the Substrate Migration Protocol, in the science-fiction horror anthology from director Zack London and producer Edward Saatchi's Fable. The film is set to open in theaters on December 4, 2026.

According to the filmmakers, Grimes' vocal performance is not AI-generated. Her character pays a visit to a dealer of dreamspools in the slums of East Cinder, a setting that reflects the film's transhumanist themes. The production notes describe the practice of casting an actor's likeness alongside their spoken vocal performance as something that will become more common with animated films using AI, with audiences seeing actors, athletes, and musicians giving vocal performances with their likeness in films.

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Gods Don't Give Gifts takes place in the Second Cycle of Humanity, a world where transhumanism has accelerated to the point that humanity looks very different. The film is a science-fiction, horror-tinged anthology with a runtime of 107 minutes and an R rating. It was written by London and Jacob Batchelor.

The trailer, currently playing in theaters, has amassed 16 million views across all platforms. A digital billboard campaign in New York City's Times Square has also started featuring Grimes. A new clip and stills from the film featuring the popstar were released on Friday, November 6.

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London explained the film's thematic ambitions in a statement. "The core of 'Gods Don't Give Gifts' is really about what happens to ordinary human hungers and instincts when the physical limits around humanity starts to disappear," he said. "The four stories in Gods Don't Give Gifts live inside that unease. They follow people using strange tools to satisfy very primal needs, exploring the strange interplay and growing disconnect between the body and the mind. You might say the stories are dystopian, but the world doesn't end in them; there isn't an apocalyptic turning point, or some dramatic collapse. Despite the seeming horror of it all, the world just bumbles onwards. The systems and markets and technologies all work as intended, and humans generally seem to prosper as a whole - it's just that their humanity, at least as we know it, is fading towards extinction."

London further described the film as "part speculation, part critique, but I don't think of it as a warning label. The point is not to say that technology is bad. The point is to take a premise seriously, follow its emotional consequences, and let the results be strange, funny, grotesque, and sad. Sci-fi can be kitschy and profound in the same scene, and I hold both with equal sincerity."

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Saatchi emphasized the film's storytelling over its technological novelty. "The most important thing to us is to work on projects that will stand the test of time - this film by Zack is a masterpiece, not a demonstration of where the technology is, but a brilliantly written and paced story that will move audiences," he said. "It is beautiful and exciting but deals in difficult themes around desire, the passage of time and the choices people make. This is a movie - and we're so excited for people to see it on the big screen."

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London is the creator of Gossip Goblin, a science-fiction universe that has amassed nearly one billion views on YouTube. Described by The Hollywood Reporter as "the Auteur of the AI age," he has a background in sculpture, anthropology, and over a decade in technology and product design. Through Gossip Goblin, he has built an expansive universe spanning thirteen cycles of humanity, blending science fiction, body horror, dark humor, and philosophical inquiry.

Saatchi is an entrepreneur and part of the founding team of Oculus Story Studio, the virtual-reality filmmaking division of Oculus VR. His Amazon-backed company Fable is building a Netflix of AI and has had 500 million views for its AI animated work. Fable's previous projects include the Emmy-winning Henry, Dear Angelica, and Wolves in the Walls. The company is also working to reconstruct the lost forty-three minutes of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, combining live-action and other techniques.

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Both London and Saatchi were named in The Hollywood Reporter's "The AI 25: The Exclusive Group of People Shaping the Future of Hollywood." Saatchi's background includes a childhood fascination with The Magnificent Ambersons, which he first saw at age twelve in his family's private screening room in West Sussex, as detailed in The New Yorker.

Gods Don't Give Gifts is produced by Fable and will be released in theaters on December 4, 2026.