Darren Aronofsky‘s company Primordial Soup plans to raise $15 million to further its ambitions in AI.

The fundraising goal was disclosed last week in an SEC filing.

Primordial Soup, which launched in 2025, has been fairly prolific during its short existence. It partnered last year with Google DeepMind on three short films using the tech giant’s generative AI models, tools and capabilities including Veo. Each of the shorts was to be directed by an emerging filmmaker, who would be mentored by Aronofsky. The first, Ancestra, was directed by Eliza McNitt and premiered at the Tribeca Festival.

Another project supported by the Google team-up was On This Day … 1776, a series of short episodes illustrating key moments before, during and after the founding of the United States. In commemoration of the nation’s 250th birthday, the episodes were posted to Time’s YouTube channel, though feedback was not especially positive. One assessment in The Guardian said the “once-lauded director … has drowned himself in AI slop.”

In a talk in Cannes last May, Aronofsky said the series was “always meant as an experiment.” He refuted the notion that AI would replace human workers, a prevailing worry in the creative community. “It takes a tremendous amount of human labor and artistry and intention to make anything good with this technology,” he said.

Aronofsky, whose credits include Black Swan and The Wrestler, has long been fascinated with technology. He was the first A-list filmmaker to sign onto making work for Sphere in Las Vegas. His film, Postcard from Earth, premiered just after U2 opened the tech-saturated venue in 2023, incorporating footage shot on all seven continents.

In an Instagram post at the time, Aronofsky said his iPhone “can’t come close to capturing the definition on the screen. at times you forget where you are.”

The Hollywood Reporter had the first report of the fundraising.

With a big summer that includes promoting The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Tom Holland is ready to strap into his dancing shoes for his next role.

Nearly five years after he revealed he’d be leading a Fred Astaire biopic, the actor recently shared an update on the Paul King-directed, Lee Hall-penned film, as well as the “absolute dread” of training to emulate Astaire’s dance moves.

“For me, what I love about my job is the challenges,” he explained on Good Morning America. “We have Fred Astaire next, is what we’re planning on doing. And as soon as I finish with these tours, I’m diving back into the dance studio.

“I did my first few rehearsals recently, and it both filled me with excitement and absolute dread because I’ve got so much work to do to try and do Fred proud,” added Holland.

Holland noted that with his onscreen dancing in the biopic, he has “a desire to use no doubles, to do all of the dancing, to shoot those dances in one shot – how [Astaire] would have done it.”

In 2021, Holland revealed his casting as the legendary dancer and choreographer in the Amy Pascal-produced Sony film, which is not to be confused with Amazon and Automatik’s Fred & Ginger, starring Jamie Bell as Astaire and Margaret Qualley as Ginger Rogers in the dance partners’ on and off-screen love story.

The onscreen dance legacy continues after Bell made his breakout performance in the 2000 British dance film Billy Elliot, which was written by Hall. Holland began his career starring in the title role of Billy Elliot: The Musical (following a brief run as the protagonist’s best friend Michael Caffrey) on the West End from 2008 to 2010.