Video of the Week: Star Wars Beggar's Canyon

Blimey.

You may not be a fan of Star Wars - or just become so tired of the relentless rubbishness of much of the recent efforts to reboot the franchise - but you're going to want to spend 7 minutes of your time watching this.

Because this is no licenced film - it's not something unearthed from a forgotten vault at Lucasfilm from the early eighties. It's a completely AI-generated, narrative-led, interesting and visually stunning short film.

It's amazing.

I started out critiquing the small details that weren't quite consistent but quickly forgot that this wasn't a real mission for Luke Skywalker. To see Mark Hamill in his youthful pomp in a brand new scene, wandering around this familiar-yet-exotic world, climbing, caving ... I've seen a lot of AI videos, way too many, but this is the first one that actually captured me for the story rather than the effects.

There's a nice, unexpected 'cameo' from a long-dead character too. This demonstrates without doubt where AI can take the film industry. Creators persist - they're now structuring stories and building them through prompts. And there will be many, many more of them - millions more. We're all going to be able to try this, if we want. We're no longer locked-out by having to impress studios or wring big budgets - this is what democratising visual story-telling looks like.

It's unlikely that Disney will allow this to stand for long so do give it a good watch now - it's famously litigious and I fear that the legal letters are already on their way to this creator. Nevertheless, it ought to stand as a true moment where we all realised what is possible in the coming 'remix' economy.

Everything can be built on. And fast. Developments are going to be supercharged from hereon-in because so many people will be trying their hand at improving and driving things forward.

Gonna be a ride. Strap in.