IQIYI recently announced that the first full AI-generated feature film in China, "Soul Ferry: Floating Dream," has been officially scheduled for release during the summer of 2026. The film is jointly produced by IQIYI and Changxin Media, and features Guo Jingyu, the producer of "The Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty," as executive producer, along with the original scriptwriter Xiao Jixiang and director Ding Kuan. This marks a significant breakthrough in the field of film industrialization, where generative AI technology has transitioned from an auxiliary tool to a comprehensive creative process.

The film is based on the classic supernatural IP "Soul Ferry" and uses deep learning and generative models to build characters, settings, and narrative structures throughout the entire process. A technical highlight is that AI successfully recreated the digital images of the classic trio "Zhao Li, Xia Dongqing, and Wang Xiaoya" in their younger years, and achieved surreal visual effects that traditional filming could not achieve, such as the "Data Flow Meng Po Soup" and the "AI dynamic generation of the other shore flower sea." The project aims to break through the physical shooting limitations through AI algorithms and explore new forms of "Oriental Supernatural" storytelling in the digital context.

However, this attempt has sparked significant controversy within the industry. Executive producer Guo Jingyu had previously expressed a cautious attitude towards AI replacing real actors' performances, and this "cross-border" participation has been questioned by some public opinion as being inconsistent. At the same time, market feedback has shown a split: supporters expect AI to break the boundaries of visual imagination, while opponents worry that AI-generated performances, lacking emotional subtlety, may trigger the "uncanny valley effect" and even lead to over-exploitation of classic IPs.

As a landmark experiment in the deep empowerment of AI in film creation, "Soul Ferry: Floating Dream" is not only a practical test of the capacity of generative AI in the long video field, but its commercial performance and reputation will also become an important industry indicator for measuring the boundaries of AI involvement in artistic creation.