What’s the scariest movie in Hollywood? If you said Obsession, Backrooms, or the jump scare-o-rama Hokum, ERR. Wrong! We’re not talking about horror movies. We’re talking about Artificial, a new biographical drama about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman from Call Me By Your Name and Challengers director Luca Guadagnino. After Amazon MGM Studios dropped the movie in June, Artificial briefly became the most notorious unreleased film in town. Its pickup by Neon has made it all the more a must-see and an immediate player for next year’s awards race.
On June 19, Amazon MGM Studios dropped Artificial from its original 2027 release slate. Amazon did not reveal specifics concerning the decision, even though the movie was greenlit into production by Amazon and has completed principal photography. But a source told Variety that its scathing portraits of Altman and trillionaire Elon Musk is what chilled the studio. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos maintains a close connection to Altman; he was a guest at Bezos’ wedding last year. In January 2026, Amazon announced a $50 billion investment in OpenAI.
In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for 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.” Attempts to sell the movie to Netflix, Focus Features, and A24 did not come to pass.
Andrew Garfield stars as entrepreneur and AI evangelist Sam Altman, and the story takes place during his tumultuous November 2023, when Altman was fired and reinstated as CEO of OpenAI. It also stars Monica Barbaro as Mira Murati, former chief technology officer of OpenAI, with Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, and Billie Lourd in key roles.
So, how much does Artificial roast the ones responsible for the AI boom? Apparently, quite a lot. On June 22, the Hollywood podcast The Town released an episode with The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future author Keach Hagey as a guest. Host Matthew Belloni not only quoted a source who had seen the movie and told him it is “so critical of Altman and the AI race” that “no major corporation would take a chance on it,” but Belloni himself read the script. It made him “surprised” that Amazon was ever involved.
Said Belloni on the podcast: “Because it does touch so many third rails right now about what’s going on with big tech. I’ve read the script, and I looked at it and was like, This is not a flattering portrait of Sam Altman. This is Social Network kind of on steroids, because you add in not only these guys warping the culture, they could potentially end the world. And that’s the message of this movie.”
That an Oscar-caliber director like Guadagnino had a star-studded picture that harshly criticized AI’s overlords lent Artificial buzz over the ensuing weeks. It had weight typically reserved for other vaulted movies like Batgirl and Coyote vs. ACME (the latter of which will hit theaters in August, after a prolonged period of uncertainty).
After proposed sales to Netflix, Focus Features, and A24 fell through, Neon announced on June 30 that it acquired the worldwide rights to Artificial. The studio has built its bones on hit indies like I, Tonya, The Worst Person in the World, Longlegs, and Oscar fare like Parasite and Anora. Neon did not confirm a theatrical release date for Artificial, but its active multi-year deal with Hulu means Artificial will likely wind up on Disney platforms after its run—whenever that may be.
Other recent pieces from outlets like Variety and World of Reel hype Artificial as a potential Oscar contender, with positive test screenings, and Garfield’s “surprising” (per Variety) performance as Sam Altman. Another source close to Belloni described Artificial as a “grim” and “dark” film that “makes you feel bad about the future of the human race.”
Whether Artificial is actually worthy of comparisons to The Social Network will be decided when Neon releases the movie Amazon didn’t want anyone to see. Imagine that printed on the poster.
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