Can A.I. write a Hollywood film?

Over recent years, we've seen artificial intelligence systems designed to write software, compose music, paint works of art, and even pen news articles, but the machines have been notably quiet in the medium of fiction storytelling. Designing an A.I. system that can write the screenplay for a movie, or compose a great novel, has posed a big challenge for researchers. So just how close are we to having machines pen our blockbuster films? In June, a bizarre short film entitled Sunspring premiered. Filled with incoherent non-sequiturs and inexplicably surreal tangents, the film could be considered either a compelling dream-like fugue or an amateurish mess.