Cybever, the AI company that pioneered proprietary 3D world creation and video generation technology, today announced its transformation into Utopai Studios, the first AI technology company to fully operate as a Hollywood film and television studio. This strategic shift builds on Cybever’s core innovations to create a new studio model that originates and produces its own slate of high-profile projects. Entering this next chapter with strategic alliances from leading entertainment industry partners, Utopai unites the original Cybever technologists with a leadership team of Hollywood veterans to set a new cinematic standard and demonstrate how AI can expand creative possibilities for filmmakers.

Driving this transformation is the original Cybever team that developed the company’s AI-driven 3D world creation and video generation technology. Cecilia Shen, Cybever’s CEO and co-founder, will serve as co-CEO of Utopai, continuing to guide the vision she has led since the company’s earliest days. From its early stages, Cybever benefited from the guidance of industry leaders, including Tom Ryan, former CEO of Paramount Streaming, who supported the team as an early investor and advisor.

Jie Yang, Cybever’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, will remain in the CTO role, spearheading the evolution of the industry-first Previz-to-Video pipeline and other core production technologies. Joining from the Hollywood side is media entrepreneur and producer Marco Weber, who transitions from acting chairman of Cybever to co-CEO in Utopai alongside Shen. Rounding out the leadership team are acclaimed production designer Kirk Petruccelli as Chief Creative Officer and filmmaker Martin Weisz as Chief Workflow Officer. Together, they are building the creative and operational foundation to deliver Utopai’s ambitious slate and demonstrate how Cybever’s technology can power a new kind of Hollywood studio model.

Utopai Studios is redefining filmmaking by giving creators the freedom to realize their visions without financial constraints or creative compromises, ensuring that what appears on screen reflects their detailed vision rather than a machine’s approximation. Shen adds that Utopai’s mission is to tell human stories and reimagine what filmmaking can become when generative technology is integrated from the start. By enabling filmmakers to scale creativity without sacrificing quality, Utopai provides a home for storytellers and world builders, helping them shape ideas, build worlds, and execute at the highest level—much like Pixar once transformed animation, but now with AI as a powerful new layer of possibility.

That vision takes shape immediately with Utopai’s inaugural slate: two high-profile projects already in production over the summer. Both are being produced using the industry-first Previz-to-Video pipeline, originally developed to accelerate previsualization workflows. This proprietary system generates high-fidelity 3D environments and translates them directly into final-quality shots, preserving filmmakers’ creative control while delivering cinematic results faster and at lower cost than traditional production.

The first is Cortés, written by Academy Award–nominated screenwriter Nick Kazan (Fallen, At Close Range). The script has appeared on multiple top-ten lists of the best unproduced screenplays and once had Oliver Stone attached to direct. Set in 1519, it follows Hernán Cortés as he defies impossible odds to conquer a nation, a story long considered unfilmable due to its immense scope, production demands, and cost. Cortés will be released in two 100-minute parts, produced by Weber (The Thirteenth Floor, Igby Goes Down) alongside Kazan and directed by Petruccelli (Blade, The Patriot, Midway).

“I have been trying to tell this story for more than 30 years. It was always impossible: too big, too expensive, just always ‘too,’” said Kazan. “Finally, I have found a home and creative partners with the talent and vision and a technology that will allow moviegoers to witness in some form events that took place more than 500 years ago. The facts of that time (the arrival of the Spaniards, the battles, the eventual fall of the astonishing city of Tenochtitlan) are rich and complicated, and many are disputed. Our goal is to tell one story - not the story, because there are many sides to it. We want to entertain, to give viewers a glimpse of the clash between two very different, almost alien cultures. We are, and we must be, bold in this.”

The second production is the sci-fi series Project “Space,” an eight-episode drama set in the future and described as Top Gun meets War of the Worlds. Created by Weber, all episodes were written by Vanessa Coifman (Fireflies in the Garden, Unthinkable) and Weisz (The Hills Have Eyes), with Weisz directing. The series follows a group of young pilots tasked with defending Earth from an alien threat. Weber and Coifman serve as executive producers.

“With Project ‘Space,’ we will try to push the envelope in the sci-fi genre creatively, utilizing our world-building technology that will allow us to build a breathtaking universe and fill it with an extraordinary story and characters,” said Weisz. “While in the traditional filmmaking process this would have required a significantly higher investment, we are lucky to not have that pressure. Our innovative team just enjoys the daily increasing opportunities, as well as the freedom, to go to places that others couldn’t go before visually, liberating the entire production process as we go.”

To accelerate its entry into the global marketplace, Utopai has formed an exclusive joint venture with K5 International, the sales company behind acclaimed films, such as the seven-time Academy Award-winning Dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga and Netflix’s Anon, directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Amanda Seyfried and Clive Owen. Under this agreement, all Utopai productions will be represented exclusively by K5 International under the Utopai x K5 brand, with series premiering at MIPCOM in October and feature films debuting at the American Film Market (AFM) in November.

With K5’s support, both Cortés and “Project Space” have already secured presale momentum, signaling strong global demand and confidence in Utopai’s creative and commercial approach.

“We are thrilled to partner with Cecilia and Marco at this crucial and exciting time, when the world is undergoing the most significant technical revolution mankind has ever encountered,” said Daniel Baur, CEO of K5 International. “We love their passion for filmmakers and their deep understanding of how to use this new technology.”

Utopai has also entered a strategic agreement with previsualization powerhouse OPSIS as part of its filmmaker-focused, high-end production workflow. Renowned for its work on projects such as Game of Thrones, Captain America, and Wicked, OPSIS brings a proven track record of applying cutting-edge visualization technologies to bring filmmakers’ visions to life. This collaboration underscores both companies’ commitment to innovation that empowers creators without compromising artistic control.

“We’ve followed video-to-video AI from the start, and Utopai’s early results were nothing short of extraordinary—far beyond anything out there,” said Henrik Fett, CEO of OPSIS. “Our aligned vision made this an ideal partnership. This isn’t about handing the keys to AI, but using it as the time-saving tool it’s meant to be. By combining our proven visualization pipeline with generative tools, we’re expanding creative possibilities while keeping control with the filmmakers.”

In filmmaking, precise control over character actions, environments, and camera movement is essential to realizing a director’s vision. The technology, developed at Cybever, goes beyond traditional generative models by giving filmmakers real-time creative control inside structured 3D environments. Unlike systems that render video frame by frame, it builds complete scenes in 3D space, allowing filmmakers to adjust and refine shots without starting over.

This capability is the result of a three-year evolution at Cybever. The architecture began with procedural content generation (PCG), a technique first used to create high-quality 3D environments for games. It then advanced into a layout system for film and television, enabling precise design and arrangement of production-ready sets, environments, and camera blocking, guided by AI-driven spatial understanding. From there, Cybever developed its Previz-to-Video pipeline, translating high-fidelity 3D scenes directly into finished shots and eliminating the gap between previsualization and final output.

With its creative vision, proprietary technology, and strategic alliances in place, Utopai is positioned to deliver bold, cinematic storytelling to audiences worldwide. Operating from Sunnyvale and West Hollywood, California, and its European subsidiary, Utopai Studios GmbH in Berlin, the studio carries forward Cybever’s legacy of innovation into its new role as a full-scale Hollywood production studio