T he long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours is being recut with AI into a microdrama designed to be watched on phones, sparking a debate among the show’s actors and the industry over the wider implications of television archives being mined for new content.

RoseBerry Media, which specialises in making “vertical television” for phones, has repurposed original episodes of Neighbours for distribution on its Epis platform, using an AI-assisted production tool called RedSnapper.

The microdrama made from the footage will initially focus on Margot Robbie’s character, Donna Freedman, who she played from 2008 to 2011. Two of Robbie’s storylines will be recut into vertical micro-episodes, creating about 150 minutes of content.

Neighbours star Stefan Dennis has voiced concerns over the project, telling the Herald Sun it was “unbelievably invasive, morally and legally wrong and somehow it appears we can’t do anything about it”.

“I’ve got my agent [on it],” he said.…