It seems like you haven’t really made it in Silicon Valley until a major movie actor plays you on film. Jesse Eisenberg portrayed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, and Michael Fassbender played Steve Jobs in the 2015 film Steve Jobs. Even Bill Gates was played by Anthony Michael Hall in the 1999 TV film Pirates of Silicon Valley. And now Elon Musk is reportedly next in line to get the Hollywood treatment.
Deadline reported today that Ike Barinholtz, the star of The Studio, which earned him his first Emmy nomination, is in talks to play the Tesla CEO in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming movie Artificial.
Guadagnino is known for his stylish films that include Call Me by Your Name, Queer, and Challengers. And now the Italian director is taking on Silicon Valley next. Artificial is being described as a comedic drama about the world of artificial intelligence.
Specific plot details have not been officially announced yet, but sources told Deadline that the film will be about the time OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was suddenly fired from the company in 2023, only to be rehired four days later.
Altman was initially ousted by the company’s board for allegedly not being “consistently candid in his communication with the board.” The New York Times reported at the time that Altman had tried to remove one of the directors, Helen Toner, after a research paper she co-authored was perceived by him as critical of OpenAI’s safety practices, while praising rival firm Anthropic.
Microsoft quickly offered Altman a job, prompting most of OpenAI’s staff to threaten to quit. Eventually, Altman won the power struggle and returned to lead the company with much of the board replaced.
Barinholtz would join a cast that currently includes includes Anora‘s Yura Borisov, Andrew Garfield, who played Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, and Cooper Koch. Although it hasn’t been confirmed, some outlets speculate that Garfield would be playing Altman. Guadagnino also frequently works with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who famously scored The Social Network, so we might see the Nine Inch Nails frontman return his focus to tech bros.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman and others back in 2015, but he left in 2018, reportedly over disagreements about the company’s direction. He now runs a rival company, xAI. And the feud between the two has only escalated since.
Earlier this year, Musk exited his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and engaged in a public spat with Trump on social media. Around the same time, Altman joined Trump for a long one-on-one meeting. Trump later publicly praised Altman’s AI infrastructure efforts, which Musk has previously disparaged.
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