Prime Video Takes Global Rights to Turkish AI Film 'Çukur: Vartolu'

Prime Video has acquired global rights to "Çukur: Vartolu," an AI-generated film from Turkish production powerhouse Ay Yapim that spins off from the hit series "Çukur," known internationally as "The Pit."

The film comes from AI Yapim, Ay Yapim's Singapore-based artificial intelligence studio. In August, the same studio launched the AI-generated historical drama "Castle Walls" on Prime Video — billed as the first show made end-to-end with AI to debut on a major global streamer. That project comprised two 15-minute episodes.

With "Çukur: Vartolu," the studio now takes its AI-native production approach, as the company said in a statement, "from an original story to an established drama franchise."

How big is the franchise behind the film?

"The Pit" has aired on free-to-air television in 105 countries since its 2017 premiere, according to Ay Yapim. The show's official YouTube channel has surpassed 6.4 billion cumulative views, the company said.

Ay Yapim built its reputation on internationally successful Turkish series including the International Emmy-winning "Endless Love," "Fatmagul," "Ezel" and "Forbidden Love."

What is the film about?

The original "Çukur" follows the Koçovalı family, which controls an Istanbul neighborhood where family loyalty intersects with the criminal world. The spin-off turns to Vartolu Sadettin, the family's illegitimate son, tracing the childhood and choices that shaped him.

"After losing his mother and grandfather, a boy grows up on the streets, waiting for his father to find him," the film's synopsis says. "When that hope gives way to revenge, Salih becomes Vartolu. Moving between his childhood in Doğubeyazıt, eastern Türkiye, and a confrontation years later in Istanbul, the film traces the losses, love and violence behind that transformation."

The synopsis continues: "A teacher's kindness and the possibility of a life with the woman he loves offer Salih another path. Yet his desire to settle the past shapes decisions whose consequences reach beyond him. The film connects a child's need for a family with the reckoning that follows in the next generation." The film carries the tagline "No one is more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose."

"Rather than revisiting the series, the film opens a new chapter in its world, built around Vartolu's origins and drawing on Ay Yapim's catalogue," the company said in its statement. "AI Yapım's creative team leads the film, with artificial intelligence at the core of its production."

How was the film made?

"Every frame of the film was generated with AI, from the characters' faces to every setting," the Ay Yapim statement said. The production was not purely machine-made, however.

"The acting is human: actors performed the scenes, and AI generated the characters over their movement, timing and expression. All dialogue was recorded by human voice actors," the statement added.

What comes next?

The deal signals that major streamers are willing to place AI-generated content inside established, fan-owned franchises rather than only in experimental originals. The open question is audience reception: "The Pit" ran as a regular live-action series without AI, and its viewers will now decide whether an AI-generated feature can carry the franchise's world forward.