Harry Potter producer backs AI-made Call of the Wild
A producer behind six Harry Potter films has agreed to back a new screen version of The Call of the Wild built with generative AI. Deadline reported the deal on 28 September 2026.
British producer David Barron will produce alongside Mark Sandell and Nick Price. Simon Rumley will write and direct, which means he is responsible for both the script and the direction of the shoot. Barron is known to many cinemagoers for his work on six Harry Potter films.
The team plans to generate the film at nmatic, a production outfit organised around AI tools. Much of the imagery will be created by generative AI, software that makes pictures and moving shots from written prompts. More complex scenes will use CGI, computer-made imagery, and traditional VFX, visual effects added after filming.
At nmatic, prompting and technical work will be led by Chris Catchpole, Carl Lyttle and Toby White. Prompting here means writing and refining the instructions that guide the AI systems. Their work will shape a consistent look across the film.
Jack London published The Call of the Wild in 1903. The story follows Buck, a pampered St Bernard taken from California's Santa Clara Valley and sold into the brutal world of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a tale of removal and adaptation, told through the behaviour of a dog under pressure.
The makers bill their version as the first faithful adaptation because it is made from Buck's subjective experience, Deadline reported. That is their description of the project. In simple terms, the story stays with the dog.
A previous screen version arrived in 2020, a film associated with Michael Green and starring Harrison Ford. That earlier outing gives general viewers a point of comparison.
For viewers, this means a familiar title made in an unfamiliar way. London's dog story has been filmed before. The test will be whether prompted pictures and effects can hold a full-length story led by an animal.
