Forget the “Artificial” sweetener.
Sources tell Page Six Hollywood that Neon only agreed to a deal for the Luca Guadagnino directed drama with a no money guarantee. That’s a blow for a pricey film with awards-season ambitions and its stars Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov and Ike Barinholtz. (We hear the budget is in the $40 million to $50 million range.)
Still, no minimum guarantee is better than no home, which was a distinct possibility given the noticeable lack of appetite in town for projects that dare to tackle the AI billionaire bros.
After all, a growing list of major and indie studios — from Disney to A24 — are brokering deals with and taking billions from the AI giants, making any movies that skewer the small pool of thin-skinned tech oligarchs potentially problematic.
In May, we told you that Amazon, which bought “Artificial” as a pitch in 2023, was experiencing some awkwardness considering that they now are deep in business with the film’s antagonist, Sam Altman (Garfield).
In November, OpenAI signed a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services. Three months later, the two companies announced a strategic partnership that will see Amazon invest $50 billion in OpenAI immediately, “when certain conditions are met,” according to the AI giant’s website. (It’s hard not to wonder if said “conditions” involved a certain thorny movie?) Either way, Amazon kicked the film to the curb, signaling a new chill in Hollywood when it comes to poking the oligarchs.
Altman isn’t the only AI baron depicted harshly in the film. Elon Musk also is “unlikeable,” says a source who has seen the film.
It remains to be seen how it all bodes for other films that take on the world’s richest. We hear that Darren Aronofsky’s Musk movie at A24 remains in development three years after its splashy announcement. But there has been no forward movement for some time.
And it’s unclear if Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s “Gawker Killer,” which features Peter Thiel — one of the most reviled tech overlords when it comes to progressives — as a main character. The duo has a deal at Netflix, but a rep for the streamer says “Killing Gawker” is not in development there.
“It’s the same skittishness you saw when China was a hot market for U.S. films and every studio bent over backwards to avoid offending and slavishly catered to Chinese sensibilities,” says one top agent about the new AI minefield. “Film executives keep their jobs by maximizing profits, not by being cultural provocateurs.”
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Mubi was the only other viable suitor for “Artificial.”
Mubi, which has faced criticism over its backer’s ties to the Israeli military, also would need to contend with the fact that “Artificial”’s hero is Israeli Ilya Sutskever (played by Borisov), which could spark its own boycott threats amid a polarized climate.
Ultimately, audiences will get a taste of an unsympathetic portrayal of a tech titan from a major studio with Aaron Sorkin’s Mark Zuckerberg movie “The Social Reckoning,” with Jeremy Strong as the Meta menace. On Oct. 9, Sony will release that film, which was in the can well before the AI freeze-out.
One veteran producer doesn’t necessarily mind that these 21st century tycoons are now off limits.
“I think the main question is whether an audience wants to see these kind of biopics, given the lead figures are hardly relatable or sympathetic,” the producer notes.
Neon and CAA did not comment.
A source familiar with the “Artificial” deal disputed that no money changed hands — but didn’t divulge an actual figure.
The Neon deal came after Amazon MGM dumped the project and Netflix, Focus, A24 then all passed. We previously reported that the sale by CAA was cloaked in a level of secrecy that execs said they had not previously seen before.
Amazon MGM previously reportedly paid $40 million to acquire the Melania Trump documentary, “Melania,” and President Trump has disclosed he made a $10.7M licensing fee on the project.
P6H reported exclusively last week that Scott Stuber and United Artists — which is based at Amazon MGM — picked up rights to create a series on the upcoming book, “The Gamble: Inside the Race to Dominate Prediction Markets — and Own the Future.”
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