No one’s even pretending any more. Until today, Amazon’s MGM Studios was due to distribute Luca Guadagnino’s movie about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Artificial. The corporation told Deadline, “We believe that Artificial would be better served if it were released by a different studio.” In other news, in February this year Amazon formed a colossal $50 billion “strategic partnership” with Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
Director Luca Guadagnino, most recently best known for 2024’s Daniel Craig-starring Queer and the same year’s Zendaya-led Challengers, is in post-production for the Sam Altman biopic, starring Andrew Garfield as the billionaire AI mogul. The movie, written by fromer SNL‘s writer Simon Rich (who is also the creator of the incredible Man Seeking Woman), focuses on the ridiculous time in 2023 when OpenAI fired and rehired Altman in the same few days.
Pretty cool that Amazon MGM would be behind a movie like that, right? Well, no, of course not, because as one tendril of the behemothic company noticed what another was doing, that’s all come to an end. In a statement given to Deadline Amazon 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.”
Artificial Reasoning
You know how when you have massive respect for someone how that means someone else should work with them instead? Yeah, it’s that ol’ situation. Nowhere in its statement does it mention that Amazon boss Jeffy B just invested an impossibly stupid $50 billion into Altman’s loss-making AI grift, nor how this might have possibly played some role in Amazon’s desire not to host a movie potentially criticizing the firm.
The potentially good news is that Artificial could actually have some teeth, if Amazon is ditching it and running away like it’s an explosive. Bezos is, of course, fully AI-brained, which can only be even more awful news for Amazon’s already abysmally treated workers. The $50 billion injection into OpenAI, as it continues burning cash on its journey to eventual financial ruin and global financial consequences, can only make things worse for everyone involved.
Alongside Garfield, Artificial stars Mark Rylance, Yura Borisov, Jason Schwartzman and Ike Barinholtz. Deadline says it’s now being shopped around to other studios.
