Conn Iggulden Uses AI Studio Authors First to Adapt Genghis Khan Novels

Iggulden said the Genghis Khan series had been optioned before, but he did not name the parties. Costs were prohibitive, particularly because Mongolia sits between China and Russia and experiences frozen temperatures on the edge of the Gobi desert, he said. His Emperor series option is still live and regularly renewed, and his Dangerous Book for Boys got one series on Prime when Bryan Cranston became involved as a producer. Even so, he said he had given up on the Genghis series ever being made. "All things are possible, of course, but without Game of Thrones money, it just wasn't possible," he said. "So, no, I don't believe it would have been made without AI, not this year anyway."

Asked about the stigma around AI in creative industries, including people dismissing AI-generated films as "slop," Iggulden said he knew a young animator who felt similarly after graduating, even though the animator uses CGI and other tools. Iggulden said he thought the animator would come round. "For me, having seen how much actual graft it involves, how much human craft, AI just feels like another tool," he said. "I like paintbrushes, but if someone hands me a roller, I'm not going to refuse to use it." He predicted AI would be used more and more in subtle ways on every major project and said there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle. He described his optimism as rational, based on earlier warnings about trains, cars and GM foods, and said guardrails and regulators were needed but humanity had adapted and thrived. "The candlemakers hated the lightbulb makers, but the world moved on," he said.

One argument against AI filmmaking is that it could take work from actors, animators, costume designers and other creative professionals. Iggulden pointed to two distinctions. The first Genghis episodes, and the further episodes he hopes will follow, would not exist without Authors First's ambition to create a body of work, he said; without the studio, the books would still look amazing on screen but would never quite get there. The second was Authors First's stated aim of making the adaptation as true to the books as possible. He cited Stephen King's The Long Walk, with Cooper Hoffman, saying the director changed the ending and took away what Iggulden called the unconquerable human soul ending. "I like having the author's vision respected, in casting, in storytelling — in plot. That matters a great deal to me," he said.

Iggulden also said the Genghis story is known for conquest, but his reason for writing the original books was to show the family that raised Genghis, including his abandonment with six siblings and his mother, of being hunted and surviving against the odds. He called it one of the great stories of human history, with a warm family saga at its heart. When the AI showed Genghis and his brothers, he said there were moments when he felt goosebumps. "The affection I wrote, the love they had for each other, shines through," he said.

The discussion comes amid resistance from some actors and filmmakers. Tom Cruise recently said "there is nothing like human," and Nicolas Cage recently revealed that he refused to sign an AI waiver from Amazon, even if it means he will never work for the studio again.