Apathy can be a coping strategy in corporate life. But when a handful of server monkeys discover that learned helplessness is company policy they must confront their own conditioned inertia and sabotage a rapidly metastasizing automated bureaucracy while manual override is still possible.

Thomas Hobbes regarded the state and capitalism as machines. When he wrote “Leviathan” in 1651 this was true in a metaphorical sense. In the 21st Century it is literally true.

Automatic explores the gradual change from a society based on human relationships to one where people are mere “nodes” in a global technological system. While our politicians profess enthusiasm for diversity, the “change” which they so enthusiastically champion serves only to nudge and coerce us into homogenising and stifling human potential. In the words of Shabana Mahmood, the current British Home Secretary and Former Secretary of State for Justice:

“When I was in justice, my ultimate vision for that part of the criminal justice system was to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times”

Preproduction started in January 2025 and principle photography completed at the end of November 2025. Automatic is now in post-production.

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