Prime Video takes global rights to AI film Çukur: Vartolu

Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service, has taken global rights to "Çukur: Vartolu," an AI-generated feature spin-off of the Turkish crime series "Çukur," known internationally as "The Pit," according to Variety, which reported the deal as an exclusive on October 10, 2026. The film is produced by the Turkish TV powerhouse Ay Yapim through its Singapore-based AI studio, AI Yapim. Variety's report did not include financial terms or a release date.

Ay Yapim said in a statement that the film carries the AI-native production approach behind its earlier series "Castle Walls" from an original story to an established drama franchise. "Every frame of the film was generated with AI, from the characters' faces to every setting," the statement said. It added: "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." That account of how the film was made is the maker's own description, and it is the open question for an audience that knows "Çukur" as a live-action series that never used the technique.

"Castle Walls" launched on Prime Video in August 2026, in what Variety reported was touted as the first show made end-to-end with AI to premiere on a major global streaming platform (Variety). That series spanned two 15-minute episodes and was written by the Turkish television writers Kerem Deren and Çisil Hazal Tenim.

"Çukur: Vartolu" turns to the origin of Vartolu Sadettin, the illegitimate son of the Koçovalı family in the original. The film's synopsis describes a boy who loses his mother and grandfather, grows up on the streets and is shaped by the hope of being found by his father, moving between his childhood in Doğubeyazıt, in eastern Türkiye, and a confrontation years later in Istanbul. The film carries the tagline "No one is more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose."

Ay Yapim is best known for the International Emmy-winning "Endless Love," along with "Fatmagul," "Ezel" and "Forbidden Love." "Çukur" has aired free-to-air in 105 countries since its 2017 premiere, and its official YouTube channel has passed 6.4 billion cumulative views, according to Ay Yapim.

The deal places another AI-made title inside a mainstream streamer's library through an established production company rather than a new AI-native studio. Ay Yapim built "Castle Walls" on in-house systems, including a video diffusion model the company said was trained only on its own licensed catalog, a rights position it has presented as a contrast to models trained on data of uncertain provenance. Whether that distinction matters to viewers of "Çukur: Vartolu" has not been tested, and Variety's report carried no trailer or release window.

Variety's report carried no release date for "Çukur: Vartolu"; the next steps are a trailer and a premiere on Prime Video.