An AI nukes Hollywood in 'The Creator.' The movie's director has thoughts about that

It's tricky enough in today's IP-obsessed Hollywood to market an ambitious original science-fiction film. Throw in a historic strike and it becomes a whole lot harder.

For Gareth Edwards, who directed 2014's "Godzilla" and 2016's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," selling his new sci-fi epic "The Creator" has been a lonely venture. His cast members, including John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney and Ken Watanabe are unable to promote the film due to the ongoing actors' strike.

"I'm like a groom in an empty church at my own wedding," Edwards joked over Zoom from a hotel room in Madrid on a recent morning. "It's a very surreal experience."

What makes it even more surreal for Edwards and Walt Disney Co., which released the film wide on Friday, is that "The Creator" centers on artificial intelligence, which also has been among the central issues in the Hollywood strikes. (Two days after this interview was conducted, the Writers Guild of America came to a tentative agreement with the studios and streamers; SAG-AFTRA remains on strike.)

Running counter to the anxieties of the moment, AI is portrayed in "The Creator" as a force for good — or at least not as a cold and merciless techno-evil, a la HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey" or Skynet in "The Terminator."

Set 40 years from now, "The Creator" posits a future in which America goes to war against artificial intelligence after (irony