Amazon MGM Studios has dropped Luca Guadagnino‘s upcoming film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Reports, originating in Puck on Friday, say that the Andrew Garfield-starrer will now be shopped to other studios. The decision was said to have come from Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios chief Mike Hopkins, who told the filmmaker and producing team.
The timing is, well, interesting: It comes only a few months after the news that Amazon has invested $50 billion in the artificial intelligence research and deployment company as part of a “multi-year strategic partnership” that will accelerate OpenAI’s consumption of Amazon Web Services.
“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,” a spokesperson for Amazon told THR. “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.”
Reps for Guadagnino, who is said to have almost completed the film, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from THR.
Described as a Social Network-esque feature shot in San Francisco and Italy, Artificial stars Garfield as Altman in a story recounting the tumultuous period at OpenAI in 2023 that saw him fired and rehired in a matter of days. The supporting cast includes Anora breakout Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder who led the movement to get rid of Altman, Monica Barbaro as chief technology officer Mira Murati, and Ike Barinholtz as Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
While test screenings in L.A. have boasted a “warm reception,” per Puck, the film’s depictions of Altman and Musk are not believed to be wholly flattering.
The movie, only announced last year, marked Guadagnino and Amazon MGM’s third collaboration, following After the Hunt, starring Garfield with Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri, and 2024’s Challengers.
Altman and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos are reportedly friendly; the AI behemoth was among the high-profile guests at the latter’s Venice wedding to Lauren Sanchez last year.
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