Amazon drops Luca Guadagnino’s OpenAI drama after signing deal with company
‘Artificial’ recounts the turbulent days of 2023, when the company’s CEO, Sam Altman — portrayed by Andrew Garfield — was fired and then rehired
It was going to be one of the films expected to make a mark at the next Academy Awards, and right now it doesn’t even have a distributor. Artificial, the film by Italian director Luca Guadagnino about the controversial CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, which is currently in post-production, has been dropped by its production company, Amazon Studios, after it signed a partnership agreement with OpenAI. The deal focuses on OpenAI’s use of Amazon Web Services and will involve developing custom artificial intelligence models, for which Amazon will invest $50 billion.
After the digital outlet Puck reported last Friday that Amazon was abandoning the production, a spokesperson for the tech giant said: “We have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker — not to mention a longstanding relationship that we hope to continue. We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.”
Meanwhile, on the day before the split became public, other major players in the film industry watched the movie and decided not to buy it: Focus Features; Clockwork, as part of Warner Bros.; A24; and Netflix all declined to make an offer. At present, only Neon and Mubi remain in the bidding for a film that cost nearly $40 million. In Artificial, actor Andrew Garfield portrays Altman at a very specific moment in his life: when he was dismissed from his position at OpenAI in 2023 and, days later — after a turbulent weekend — rehired.
First delay
Artificial had already experienced a delay in its planned theatrical release to avoid clashing with The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network two decades later, which premieres in the U.S. on October 9. For that reason, Amazon had planned for Artificial to come out in early 2027. Now, depending on who buys it, it could even be seen at the next Venice Film Festival at the end of August. The Mostra is a festival where Guadagnino has always been well received: his most recent film, After the Hunt, began its run there.
The screenplay for Artificial is by Simon Rich, best known for having been part of the Saturday Night Live writing team from 2007 to 2024. The cast includes Andrew Garfield alongside Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati; Yura Borisov (Anora) as former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever; and Ike Barinholtz (The Studio) as Elon Musk.
According to Variety, the film portrays Altman as a pathological liar and Musk as an extremely unpleasant person. The same publication reports that, before Amazon dropped it, Artificial had already had several test screenings with a very positive reception. According to a source cited by the outlet who has seen the film, the characters of Altman and Musk are the least sympathetic and the ones audiences will like the least. It is also known that Amazon had seen all preliminary versions of the script before Guadagnino joined the project.
The current Hollywood landscape makes it harder for Guadagnino to secure backing, given the complex ties between investment funds, tech giants, and major studios. One example: A24 is backed by Thrive Capital, the fund run by Josh Kushner — Ivanka Trump’s brother-in-law—who sits on the board of the production and distribution company and is among OpenAI’s most prominent and high-profile investors.
Earlier this month, the state of Florida filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, in what Attorney General James Uthmeier described as the first legal action brought by a state against the company behind ChatGPT. The lawsuit, filed in a state court, accuses OpenAI of releasing a product it considers dangerous for minors and of downplaying the risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
The lawsuit came weeks after Florida launched a criminal investigation into OpenAI following a shooting at Florida State University (FSU) in which two people were killed. At the time, Uthmeier argued that ChatGPT had apparently provided “significant advice to the shooter before he committed such heinous crimes.”
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