Neighbours recut into microdrama starring Margot Robbie

Long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours is being recut with AI into a phone-based microdrama.

RoseBerry Media, which specialises in making 'vertical television' for phones, has repurposed original episodes of Neighbours using an AI-assisted production tool.

The story will focus on Margot Robbie's character, Donna Freedman.

Robbie, who now goes by Ackerley, starred on Neighbours from 2008 to 2011. She returned alongside other former stars for the show's 2022 finale episode.

Two of Robbie's storylines are set to be recut into vertical micro-episodes, creating about 150 minutes of content, the Guardian reports.

The news has sparked a debate among the show's actors and others over the wider implications of TV archives being mined for content.

Stefan Dennis, who played Paul Robinson on the show over four decades, voiced his concerns over the project, telling Australian newspaper 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 confided. "I imagine everyone else on Neighbours is doing the same thing, as well as the MEAA (Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance) and Australian Writers' Guild. Whether they can stop it is another thing. We're dealing with a very big machine."

Former Neighbours star Matthew Werkmeister, who played Zeke Kinski from 2005 to 2011 and appeared alongside Robbie in a love-triangle storyline, told Guardian Australia that he only learned about the deal when he was approached for comment.

"I find it extremely concerning," Werkmeister opined. "Not from any money-making point of view, but from my image being used through AI on a platform I did not consent to."

The Neighbours microdrama arrives amid a boom in vertical serials, which are usually made up of episodes around one minute and tailored for mobile phone viewing.