Want to act in our movie?
We're remaking Heat (1995) in small-town Missouri — real people, real performances, finished with AI. No experience needed. Send us your face.
Ten minutes, shot on a real driveway with real family. This is the proof of concept — the tone, the people, the place. Open on YouTube →
The movie
Heat is Michael Mann's 1995 crime drama: a crew of professionals on one side, a detective who can't let go on the other, and the famous scene where the two of them sit down over coffee and admit they're the same man. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Los Angeles at night.
Our twist: we bring it home. Missouri instead of L.A. A family instead of a task force. The crew isn't robbing banks — they're collecting on a man with a badge, a family and a secret, and the pressure comes right up his driveway with his kids in the yard. His wife asks the questions he can't answer. His brother is in the car. And somewhere in town there's a meeting at Joe's that nobody should go to.
Rated R for language and violence. An independent fan project inspired by Heat — not affiliated with Warner Bros.
How it gets made
Higgsfield is an AI filmmaking platform — you describe or storyboard a shot and it generates the footage, with a director-grade camera (dolly, crane, handheld, the whole kit), consistent characters across scenes, and voice, music and sound built in. It was founded by Alex Mashrabov, who ran generative AI at Snap, and its Cinema Studio is now used to make whole films, not just clips.
In August 2026 Higgsfield premiered The Cully Hill Boys, a 110-minute feature made in four weeks, starring real people — Rampage Jackson, Israel Adesanya and others — who licensed their likeness under contract: high-definition photos and recordings, script approval, defined compensation, and every source file destroyed within 30 days of wrap.
That's the model we're using. You act, in one of two ways, or both:
1. On camera
Scenes shot for real around Moberly and mid-Missouri, like the driveway cut above. Evenings and weekends. Your own clothes, your own voice.
2. As a likeness
You give us a set of photos (and a short voice recording if you want lines). Your character is built in Higgsfield and performs in the scenes we could never afford to shoot — the bank, the freeway, the night city. You review the script first, you sign a written release that spells out exactly how your likeness can and can't be used, and your source files are deleted when we're done.
Nothing about you is used for anything until that release is signed. Not a test render, not a poster.
The prize
Higgsfield runs the biggest AI film competition in the world — the Higgsfield Global Film Festival. The 2026 edition, judged by five-time Oscar winner Ed Catmull, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael and director Paul W.S. Anderson, put up:
Entries are three-to-five-minute short films made inside Higgsfield. The 2026 window ran August 10 – September 15; winners are announced at the end of October 2026. We're building for the next window, and the festival short is the spine of the full movie we're shooting here.
What you get: a credited role, your scenes for your reel, and a say in how your likeness is used. What you don't get: a paycheck up front — this is an independent, self-funded film. If it wins money, how that's shared gets put in writing before anyone shoots a frame.
Roles we're casting
Every age, every look. Missouri is easiest for on-camera days, but a likeness travels — you can be anywhere.
- The BadgeOur lead. A man with a job he can't talk about, a family in the yard, and payments he's stopped making. Quiet until he isn't.
- The CollectorRuns the crew. Calm, patient, does the math out loud. Never raises his voice; that's the problem.
- The WifeAsks the questions he won't answer. The shooting-range scene is hers.
- The BrotherSits in the car until he doesn't. Loyal, hot, the first hand on the hood.
- The RookieThe one who shows up at the house. Nervous, out of his depth, dangerous because of it.
- The CrewTwo or three more. Faces that read as men who've done this before.
- JoeOwns the bar where the meeting happens. Sees everything, says nothing.
- Kids & extrasKids need a parent or guardian to submit for them. Extras for the bar, the range and the bank.
Submit yourself
Two minutes. A phone photo is fine. If you have a self-tape or anything you've acted in, paste the link.