Hollywood Panics After AI Makes Tom Cruise Fight Brad Pitt — Studios Demand TikTok Owner Step In

Two lines of text. That is all it took. An Irish filmmaker typed a brief prompt into a new AI video tool on 11 February and out came Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt throwing punches on a rooftop, shot-for-shot convincing enough to fool half the internet.

The clip, generated by ByteDance's Seedance 2.0, hit 1.3 million views on X within 48 hours. It looked like a scene ripped from a big-budget action film — slick choreography, realistic lighting, facial expressions that held up even on a second watch.

Neither actor was involved. Neither gave consent. Neither, it is safe to assume, was thrilled.

The MPA Came Out Swinging

Within hours, the Motion Picture Association (MPA)—which represents heavyweights like Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix and Sony Pictures—spoke up. Deadline reported that Charles Rivkin, the MPA chairman, called it a blatant copyright violation.

'ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs,' he said.

The worry isn't just legal, it's existential. Seedance 2.0 can pull likenesses, choreography, even signature expressions, from existing films and spin them into new videos in minutes. For studios, that is deeply unsettling.

And yes, that means the next viral fight could feature Jennifer Lawrence or Denzel Washington. Without them ever stepping onto a set.

Creatives React — And Not Nicely

Hollywood insiders are uneasy. Rhett Reese, the screenwriter behind Deadpool, Wolverine, and Zombieland, spoke on X about the clip's quality. He called it disconcerting, noting that one person at a laptop could produce footage almost indistinguishable from a studio's big-budget production.

'So many people I love are facing the loss of careers they love. I myself am at risk,' he said.

The Irish filmmaker who posted the original video chimed in with dark humour: should he 'be killed for typing two lines and pressing a button?' It was a joke, but it underscored how quickly the conversation around AI and authorship has shifted.

Some fans, meanwhile, are weirdly anxious. One X user wrote, 'If I can't trust Brad Pitt throwing a punch, I can't trust anything.' It's not hyperbole. The blurring of real and artificial footage is rattling the public in a way few expected.

What Seedance 2.0 Means for the Industry

Seedance 2.0 sits at a strange intersection. On one side, independent creators now have cinematic-level tools at their fingertips. They can test ideas, play with scenes, and experiment with visual storytelling that would have cost millions before.

On the other hand, studios face a nightmare scenario: their intellectual property. Actors' likenesses, action sequences, and iconic moments can be replicated, distorted, or monetised. The worst is that it can be done by anyone with a computer. The very idea of authorship is being tested.

And yes, it raises questions that go beyond money. What does it mean for trust? For audiences? For the culture of cinema itself?

The MPA is now publicly pressuring ByteDance to consider licensing, safeguards, or other measures. But for now, Seedance 2.0 is out there. One clip at a time, it is rewriting the rules—whether Hollywood is ready for it or not.

And fans? Well, they keep clicking, mesmerised, thrilled, and just a little terrified. Because the fight on the rooftop might not be real. But the future it hints at? That's very, very real, especially for the creative industry.

The Filmmaker Who Started It All

Ruairi Robinson, the Irish film and commercial director who generated the original clip, seemed caught somewhere between pride and dark comedy. 'This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2,' he wrote on X. 'If the hollywood is cooked guys are right maybe the hollywood is cooked guys are cooked too idk.'

When backlash arrived — and it arrived fast — Robinson pushed back with a question that landed harder than he probably intended: 'Should I be killed for typing 2 lines and pressing a button?'

It was rhetorical. But the underlying point was real. The barrier between imagining a scene and producing it to near-cinematic quality had collapsed overnight to almost nothing.

Not everyone in the industry shared the panic. Heather Anne Campbell, a writer on Rick & Morty, pointed out on Bluesky that people with access to unlimited creative power were mostly churning out fan fiction. 'Almost like the original ideas are the hardest part,' she wrote.

She has a point. But try telling that to an actor who just watched a stranger deepfake their face into a fight scene without asking.

What ByteDance Has Said — and What It Has Not

ByteDance promoted Seedance 2.0 as a 'substantial leap in generation quality' and said the tool could 'achieve extremely realistic audiovisual effects'. The company's blog post claimed it had worked with 'experts from the film and television industry' to test the model before launch.

TikTok, which ByteDance owns, told reporters it had suspended users' ability to upload images of real people into the tool and was implementing monitoring mechanisms. ByteDance itself did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Variety or other outlets.

The MPA dealt with a similar situation when OpenAI released Sora 2 last autumn. That time, OpenAI responded by adding safeguards. Whether ByteDance will follow suit remains unclear, and the MPA's public statements suggest it is not optimistic.

Meanwhile, Seedance's creative partner programme is reportedly set to open this week. Industry watchers expect a fresh wave of clips to flood social media over the coming days.

Martial arts actor Scott Adkins, who appeared in John Wick: Chapter 4, discovered his own likeness had been used in a Seedance video without his knowledge. 'I don't remember shooting this,' he wrote on X on 8 February. 'Must've slipped my mind.'

He was joking. The problem is not.

Originally published on IBTimes UK

Tags

Hollywood, Copyright infringement, Tom Cruise, Brad pitt