Nova Starts Production on a US$10M+ Real-Actor AI Series Slate, One of the Most Ambitious Yet

Disaster thriller “The Last Ferry,” sci-fi epic “Starsown” and folk horror “Nian” star real actors, with AI throughout production; first title due summer 2027

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, October 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Generative AI took its boldest step yet from single effects shots into full-scale drama this month as Nova (mynova.ai), one of the world’s most advanced AI video platforms, headquartered in Los Angeles, began production on a slate of three original series budgeted at more than US$10 million: the disaster thriller “The Last Ferry,” the science-fiction epic “Starsown” and the folk horror “Nian.” The series star signed, real-life actors, and AI works at every stage of production, from script breakdown and character looks to storyboards and every single shot. The slate is aimed at global streaming platforms such as Netflix and YouTube, and the first title is expected to premiere in summer 2027.

From one shot to a whole series

The industry’s biggest platforms have already moved. In July 2025, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors that a building-collapse sequence in the Argentine series “El Eternauta” had been made with generative AI and finished ten times faster than traditional VFX workflows allowed: the first generative-AI footage in the final cut of a Netflix original. A month later, Netflix published guidance on generative AI for its production partners. In September 2025, YouTube brought Google’s Veo 3 video model to Shorts, free for creators.

Those were single shots and short clips. Nova’s slate takes the same technology to whole series: real actors on screen, AI throughout production, three titles at once and a budget of more than US$10 million behind them. It is one of the most ambitious real-actor-plus-AI drama projects to date.

Real actors, AI-built worlds

Lead roles are played by the company’s signed performers, combining live performance with authorized digital doubles for large-scale and effects-heavy scenes. Each character’s look is registered on Nova, so the same face holds across hundreds of shots, and creatures such as the title beast of “Nian” are designed once and stay identical from scene to scene. Every shot is built to Hollywood feature-film lighting and texture standards. First-look teasers for all three series are complete.

The slate

“The Last Ferry” — On a typhoon night, the last ferry between Hong Kong and Macau drives into a ten-meter wave. At dawn it docks to find both cities empty. In Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Japanese and Korean.

“Starsown” — Eighty thousand years after Earth sent out its seed ships, the last woman from Earth wakes to meet humanity’s descendants, raised by AI “Mothers.” In English, with an international cast.

“Nian” — Lunar New Year’s Eve, 1897. In a round earthen fortress in the mountains of southern China, four hundred people keep one rule older than memory: every year, one of them is fed to the Nian. This year the lot falls on a twelve-year-old boy, and his sister has come home from overseas with a crate of fireworks to break the rule. In Mandarin and English.

“A ten-meter wave, cities in the clouds and a monster used to take a huge crew and years of visual effects,” said a Nova spokesperson. “Our actors are real, their faces stay the same, and AI builds the worlds around them shot by shot, with pictures that stand alongside any Hollywood feature. We aren’t making AI demos. We’re making the best AI series the world has ever seen, the kind audiences everywhere will want to binge.”

About Nova

Nova (mynova.ai), headquartered in Los Angeles, is one of the world’s most advanced AI video platforms and one of the most complete built for drama and film: script, cast, storyboard and final cut in one place. It is available in 17 languages.

Images accompanying this release are AI-generated stills from the series’ first-look teasers, made on Nova.

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