Authors First Raises $10M for AI Book-to-Screen Studio

Authors First, a New York book-to-screen studio, came out of stealth on Tuesday, 6 October 2026 with more than $10 million in seed funding to make AI-assisted film and television adaptations in which the original author keeps creative control. The round was led by early-stage investor Brand Foundry and by founder and chief executive Robert Hamwee, according to the company's Business Wire announcement. Its first title is "Genghis: Birth of an Empire," adapted from Conn Iggulden's 2007 novel, with Iggulden holding final-cut approval.

Who is backing the Authors First studio

Business Wire lists the other participants in the seed round as Bolt Ventures, described as the family office of David Blitzer, along with Andy Mills, Mike Duggal and John Kline. The company did not disclose a valuation.

Hamwee's background is in finance. C21Media reported that he spent three decades in private equity and institutional finance before starting the company. C21Media named chief content officer Garrett Weaver, previously in acquisitions at Entertainment One and Universal Pictures; senior producer Gina Bouchard, who oversaw branded content production at Vice Media; and chief experience officer John S Couch, who held the same title at Fox and was previously a vice president at Hulu and at CBS Interactive.

The company's release says its executives bring experience from Amazon, Hulu, Paramount, Sony, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and Epic Games, and that the team has marketed and distributed adaptations including Dune, The Lord of the Rings and DC Comics titles.

In a statement carried by Business Wire and Variety, Hamwee said the company was built to give authors "full creative control and modern tools so production budgets no longer dictate what's possible on screen."

How Genghis: Birth of an Empire was made

The debut project adapts the first book in Iggulden's Conqueror series, published in the UK as Wolf of the Plains, according to C21Media. Variety described it as the author's novel about Genghis Khan.

The two main accounts of the production differ on headcount. The Business Wire release says Iggulden worked with a team of more than 30 production artists to guide narrative arcs, camera angles, character dialogue, score and visual details, after which the studio's artists used AI and other technology to realize his vision. Variety reported that roughly 25 people worked on story, camera angles and dialogue, and that the project itself was mostly generated by AI.

Variety also named the tools. It said the studio combines AI generators such as Seedance 2.5 and Nano Banana with other technology, including visual effects platforms such as Blender. The company's release says the team replaced costly location shoots, CGI and green screens with emerging technology, which let it stage shots such as an arrow tracked mid-flight and battle scenes on snowy hillsides.

Iggulden told Variety that earlier offers to adapt the book fell through because of the budget a historical epic would need. In the company's statement he said that filming it conventionally "would have taken significant capital and years of filming on location across thousands of miles of remote Mongolian landscape."

Business Wire says the series will be available to buy soon on the Authors First platform and on other digital storefronts through the company's distribution relationship with Filmhub. The Authors First website lists the title as coming soon. No release date or price was given.

A pipeline of science fiction and fantasy titles

Authors First says it works with authors across the whole process, from character design and scripting to storyboarding and what it calls virtual cinematography. Its website breaks that into eight stages: book, characters, script, style, storyboard, framed shot, rough video and final video, with the author and team reviewing the rough cut together.

The company describes its approach as human-led and AI-enabled. It says this lets it greenlight historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy projects that budget limits would usually keep traditional studios from taking on.

The next projects named in the release are an adaptation of Peter F. Hamilton's "Pandora's Star," which C21Media identified as his 2004 science fiction novel, and adaptations of books by David Ball and R.A. Salvatore. The website lists Ball's Ironfire and Empires of Sand and Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt and DemonWars books among its authors' work, without saying which titles will be adapted.

The company's boilerplate says authors receive creative authority and "shared upside," but it does not spell out revenue terms. The release describes Authors First as both a studio and a distribution platform, and pitches the result to fans as a way to "watch the book."

Where Authors First fits among AI adaptation studios

Variety placed the launch alongside other companies using AI for book adaptations. It said Utopai Studios is adapting screenwriter Mike Bender's children's book "The Most Serious Fart" and the Chinese classic "Journey to the West," and that the AI animation studio Intelligent Animation is adapting "The Dragon Prince's Bride" for the microseries platform aTwist.

The company's own materials put the author's contractual role at the centre of its pitch. Iggulden is described as having ultimate creative control and final cut. The company has not said whether every future title will carry the same terms.

The launch materials also leave several points unaddressed, including which models were used beyond those Variety named, how many episodes the first series runs, and how the studio will price titles on its platform.

The launch follows other creative-media funding and tooling news covered by PromptCrates, including Stability AI's $76 million Series B from entertainment backers, Adobe's generative video tool inside the Premiere timeline and Creative Commons guidance on how its licenses apply to AI.

• Business Wire via Yahoo Finance: Authors First launches with $10M
• Variety: AI studio Authors First pledges to help writers adapt their books
• C21Media: Authors First launches
• Authors First website
• PromptCrates: Stability AI raises $76 million Series B from entertainment backers
• PromptCrates: Adobe puts generative video inside Premiere timeline
• PromptCrates: Creative Commons says licenses still fit AI era