Arcana Labs, which produced the AI-generated sci-fi short film “Echo Hunter,” is now tackling a family friendly animation film as its next big project.

The AI production studio said it had optioned “The Furry Wild West,” a full-length animated feature from Grammy nominated musician and children’s author Oren Lavie. The action-comedy is a kid-friendly take on the spaghetti Western, following a notorious lion gunslinger and his canine sidekick.

Unlike other AI-generated productions, the technology will be utilized in the animation stage, with artists coming up with the scripts, designs, storyboards, characters, settings and executing on shots designed by humans ahead of time. Essentially, AI fills in the gaps by adding movement between stills.

The process preserves much of the human element in creating an animated film, a form of AI assistance that’s more palatable than the idea of a large language model spitting out something purely on prompts. This stands in contrast with fully AI-generated projects, many of which Hollywood has written off as slop.

The notion of AI assistance in production — where the technology aids in more of the rote work while filmmakers still handle the grander vision — has picked up steam in the industry as a counter to full AI generation.

The other advantage is one Hollywood studios are interested in: cost. An insider said “The Furry Wild West” will cost less than 10% of the typical $100 million budget for an animated film. AI boosters have long said the cost savings enabled by the technology could lead to more projects being green lit.

“Oren wrote a great film about being seen for who you are – and for years, an original script like this only got made if a major studio said yes,” said Arcana Labs CEO Jonathan Yunger. “Now, those gatekeepers are disappearing.”

“I love mixing different forms of storytelling in my work. With ‘The Furry Wild West,’ we have a chance to reinvent the Wild West, which I loved as a child and still do, and populate it with an entire society of furry animals. It’s a huge undertaking that requires imagination alongside serious production muscle,” said Lavie, who was nominated for a Grammy for his YouTube stop-motion music video “Her Morning Elegance.” “The team at Arcana saw the potential immediately and committed to providing a unique set of tools, working alongside traditional animation techniques, to help me bring this world to life exactly the way I imagine it.”

Erik Feig (the “Step Up” franchise, “Borderlands”) is serving as producer.

This announcement comes as tensions in Hollywood remain over the warmer embrace of AI by studios, from Netflix’s acquisition of Ben Affleck’s startup InterPositive to Amazon launching a GenAI Creators’ Fund. Arcana had previously tried to bridge the gap, getting SAG-AFTRA approval for “Echo Hunter” and its cast, which starred Breckin Meyer.

Arcana said other studios are utilizing the same kind of AI assistance techniques with its AI tools on various animation projects, but the company declined to specify.

The film doesn’t have a distributor yet.

Samuel Monroe Jr., a veteran Hollywood character actor and star of Menace II Society, has died. He was 52.

“I want to thank all of my facebook family and friends new and old for praying for Samuel Monroe Jr., my son. But today God called him home. Please honor my final request to pray for the family, especially his 3 children,” Joyce Patton, Monroe’s mother, said in a Facebook post early on Thursday morning.

Tayonna Stewart, daughter of Shawna Stewart, Monroe’s partner, in a Go Fund Me page that asked for donations to help offset steep medical care costs mentioned the actor had been battling severe meningitis and had been on life support for months as he received round-the-clock care.

That led to mounting health complications for Monroe Jr., including serious pneumonia due to a lung infection. “The emotional and financial strain on his family has been immense, over the last nine months with Samuel being in multiple hospitals and two rehabilitation centers,” the fundraising page stated.

In the days before his death, Patton filed for court-directed conservatorship to allow her to make final decisions around his life, according to TMZ. Professor Rel Dowdell, director of film studies at Hampton University, paid tribute to the veteran actor for standout roles in Black cinema classics.

“Samuel Monroe Jr. was an unusually gifted character actor who truly mastered the authenticity and depth of urban characters in hit films like Menace II Society, Set It Off, Tales from the Hood and many others. There was never a modicum of doubt that whatever character he played on the screen was going to be indelible,” Dowdell said.

Born on Nov. 28, 1973 in Los Angeles, Monroe Jr.’s first acting role was in Patti LaBelle’s series Out All Night, and he had additional TV roles in The Lion’s Den and The Steve Harvey Show. His breakout film role came with New Line’s 1993 crime drama Menace II Society where he played Ilena’s cousin. The film was shot around the time of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

As a stalwart in Black movies, Monroe Jr. also played Lorenz in Set It Off, appearing opposite Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox, Bulldog in Tales From the Hood and Sam in the buddy comedy Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.

He had other TV credits, often in supporting roles, including NYPD Blue, Murder One, Smart Guy and Southland.