James Franco headlines a Shortical microdrama made without AI performances
Variety reported on 12 August that Love, Lies & Frank is streaming on Shortical and counts among the first series produced under SAG-AFTRA's Verticals Agreement. The production used no AI-generated performances or digital replicas, per the company.
What this basis means: Reported by a named news outlet, and traceable to neither a filing, a research vendor, nor the company itself.
James Franco stars in Love, Lies & Frank, a vertical series streaming exclusively on Shortical, Variety reported on 12 August 2026. The title is counted among the first produced under SAG-AFTRA's Verticals Agreement, the union's collective-bargaining framework for vertical productions.
Variety states that the production did not use AI-generated performances or digital replicas. Matthew Ko, co-founder and chief executive of producer Knockout Shorts, said the series "gave us the opportunity to play with the conventions of the genre, and subvert them just enough without losing sight of what audiences already love about these stories." The series is produced by Knockout Shorts with Peter Gold of Gold Films, directed by Eric Wang Schwager and written by Melissa Lynn Moore. Franco appears alongside Eric Guilmette and Neela Jolene, performers Variety describes as established vertical stars.
Shortical released Bound by Fire, described as its first fully AI-generated microdrama, on 14 May 2026. TheWrap attributes the absence of AI performance in Love, Lies & Frank to the company, noting that Shortical also produces fully AI-generated titles. The same platform is therefore distributing both an AI-generated title and one marketed on an explicit absence of AI performance.
Variety gives no episode count. Figures of 50 episodes appear in secondary reports and are not in the Variety text.
Companies Shortical, Knockout Shorts