EXCLUSIVE: Producer Marco Weber (Igby Goes Down), filmmaker Martin Weisz (The Hills Have Eyes II) and Pluto TV co-founder and former Paramount streaming CEO Tom Ryan are teaming up to launch AI-oriented production company Ex Machina Studios.
Weber will serve as Chief Executive Officer, with Weisz as Chief Creative Officer, and Ryan joining as a board member.
Ex Machina, the latest entrant into the Hollywood AI production space, says it will harness “ethical AI, using real actors, human-authored narratives, and guild-aligned production practices”, to make theatrically-oriented features that simultaneously reduce costs. The company says it is committed to physically producing its content locally in Los Angeles.
The new label has partnered with Sunnyvale, CA-based Utopai Studios on productions and technology. Weber, formerly Utopai’s co-CEO and Chairman, co-founded Ex Machina to focus exclusively on content creation. Utopai will be co-producer for the first two projects in production, which both will be powered by the company’s video generation model and agentic workflow.
The first two projects for the company were previously announced for Utopai: Cortés, Nicholas Kazan’s long-gestating historical adventure epic, is produced by Weber and written by Kazan, with production designer Kirk Petruccelli (The Patriot) directing the preview shown at AFM.
Set in 1519, “Hernán Cortés arrives in the New World and discovers a mysterious, highly advanced civilization whose grandeur rivals the greatest empires of Europe”. After years in development, the partners are now confident the project can move forward thanks to AI tech.
The second project is Space Nation, the eight-episode sci-fi project set in the near future, where humanity’s survival rests with a new generation of elite pilots. The show is created by Weber and written by Vanessa Coifman and Martin Weisz, with Weber and Coifman serving as executive producers.
Preview footage from both projects was presented to buyers at the 2025 American Film Market. K5 International is handling worldwide sales.
“Ex Machina Studios was founded on the belief that technology should expand what’s creatively possible—not replace the human artistry that defines great cinema,” said Weber. “By working in alignment with Hollywood’s guilds and placing writers, actors, and filmmakers at the center of our process, we’re building a responsible, sustainable model for feature filmmaking—one that lowers costs while raising creative ambition.”
Weber’s credits include The Thirteenth Floor, Igby Goes Down and Unthinkable. Weisz has directed music videos for artists including Brandy, Korn, Live, Daughtry, Sisqo, and Nickelback, and commercials for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin, Budweiser, and Wrigley’s. His feature debut Grimm Love (which Weber also produced) won Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography at the Sitges Film Festival. He later directed The Hills Have Eyes II for Twentieth Century Fox and produced and directed Squatters, released by Sony Pictures.
Entrepreneur Ryan served as CEO of Paramount Streaming, creating the company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) division. He launched and grew Paramount+ and he helped popularize the FAST industry as co-founder and CEO of Pluto TV, which he scaled to over $1BN in revenue in six years and which Paramount acquired in 2019. Earlier in his career, he was CEO of crowdsourced design company Threadless and co-founder of digital music service Cductive, which was acquired by eMusic.
