In one of the more unusual announcements from Silicon Valley, Amazon-Backed AI entertainment startup Fable, backed by Amazon’s Alexa Fund, has revealed its plan to digitally recreate the long-lost 43 minutes of Orson Welles’ 1942 classic, The Magnificent Ambersons. The project, equal parts ambitious and controversial, highlights both the potential of artificial intelligence in storytelling and the ethical debates surrounding its use.
Why Fable Chose Orson Welles
Fable describes itself as the “Netflix of AI,” with a platform that lets users create cartoons using Amazon-Backed AI. While it has started with original content, the company has bigger dreams — to work with Hollywood intellectual property. In fact, Fable’s tools have already been used in eyebrow-raising ways, including the creation of unauthorized South Park episodes.
For its next big experiment, the company is turning to The Magnificent Ambersons, a film that remains a legendary piece of cinema history. Unlike Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane, often hailed as the greatest movie ever made, Ambersons is remembered as a tragedy of studio interference. The film was taken out of Welles’ control, heavily edited, and released with a compromised ending. Much of his original footage was cut and destroyed, sparking decades of regret among film historians and fans.
This sense of loss is what drew Fable and filmmaker Brian Rose, who has spent five years studying and digitally reconstructing Welles’ vision. Over the next two years, they plan to use Fable’s new AI model — designed to handle long, complex narratives — to digitally recreate those missing scenes.
The Catch: No Film Rights
Despite the excitement, Fable does not own the rights to The Magnificent Ambersons. That means the finished project, if completed, will likely remain a private tech demo rather than something released publicly. It also means Fable is facing criticism for moving ahead without consulting Welles’ estate.
David Reeder, who manages the estate for Welles’ daughter Beatrice, described the effort as “an attempt to generate publicity on the back of Welles’ creative genius.” He added that the estate wasn’t even notified about the project, something he found disrespectful. While Reeder confirmed the estate has embraced Amazon-Backed AI in certain ways — including creating a voice model of Welles for brand work — he dismissed the Ambersons project as a “mechanical exercise” that cannot replicate Welles’ creativity.
How the Project Would Work
Fable says its approach will combine Amazon-Backed AI with traditional filmmaking. Some scenes could be reshot with new actors, then digitally altered to resemble the original cast through AI-driven face-swapping. The idea is to blend human performances with machine-generated replicas to fill in the missing footage.
Brian Rose, who is leading the reconstruction, has spoken passionately about the project. He pointed to a famous four-minute unbroken tracking shot that was cut from the original film. Only 50 seconds survive, and Rose described its loss as a tragedy. By using Amazon-Backed AI, he hopes to give modern audiences a glimpse of what Welles might have intended.
The Bigger Debate Around AI and Film
This project raises big questions about where AI belongs in creative industries. On one hand, the technology offers an unprecedented way to bring lost art back to life. On the other, it risks producing “Frankensteined” replicas that mimic style without the original artistry. Even if Fable successfully stitches together scenes, the end result will always be their interpretation — not the version Orson Welles created more than 80 years ago.
Hollywood is already grappling with these questions. We’ve seen AI voice models, digital de-aging of actors, and even fully synthetic performances. The Ambersons project pushes that conversation further: should AI be used to “resurrect” films that history has lost, or should they remain part of cinema’s untouchable mythology?
Looking Ahead
Whether or not the Ambersons project is ever completed, it signals the kind of future Fable is aiming for. The startup clearly sees Amazon-Backed AI as a storytelling partner, not just a tool, and is positioning itself as a platform where audiences might one day generate full-length films from simple prompts. That vision could reshape entertainment as dramatically as streaming services did in the 2010s.
Still, without the legal rights or the blessing of Welles’ heirs, this specific project may never see the light of day. What it does accomplish, however, is keeping the debate about Amazon-Backed AI and creativity front and center — and reminding the world that Orson Welles’ lost masterpiece continues to inspire fascination, even eight decades later.
A Look Back at Past Attempts to Restore Welles
- 1942: RKO releases a heavily cut version of The Magnificent Ambersons, discarding over 40 minutes of Welles’ footage.
- 1970s–2000s: Various filmmakers and historians attempt reconstructions using scripts, storyboards, and surviving stills.
- 2018: The long-unfinished Welles project The Other Side of the Wind is completed and released by Netflix.
- 2025: Fable and Brian Rose announce plans to use Amazon-Backed AI to digitally recreate the missing Ambersons footage.
Each attempt reflects the enduring pull of Welles’ artistry — and the frustration over how much of his vision was lost to studio cuts. Whether AI can ever do justice to that legacy remains an open question.