Neon, the independent studio that backed the best picture Oscar winner Parasite, will release Artificial, the Sam Altman movie, according to the New York Times.
Earlier this month, Amazon MGM dropped the movie, releasing a statement that said, “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.”
An anonymous insider told Variety the film’s portrait of Altman—who I probably don’t need to remind you is the CEO of OpenAI—is unsympathetic, as is the films portrayal of Altman’s arch nemesis, Elon Musk. Andrew Garfield plays Altman, while Ike Barinholtz plays Musk. The film is being described as a comedy-drama written by humorist Simon Rich. If you’ve ever seen Barinholtz in HBO’s Eastbound and Down, you can probably form a tantalizing image in your head of a potential Musk-Altman onscreen dynamic.
In February, Amazon and OpenAI formed a “strategic partnership” under which, Amazon says, $50 billion will be invested in OpenAI, while Amazon Web Services will provide certain cloud resources to OpenAI on an exclusive basis.
The Times says there were other bids for Artificial, including one by Mubi, which is backed by Sequoia Capital, a major OpenAI investor. A24, Netflix, and Focus Features turned it down, according to Variety.
Artificial reportedly centers on the four days in 2023 when Altman was fired and then rehired as CEO of OpenAI. IMDb informs me that Monica Barbaro, one of the breakout actors from Top Gun: Maverick, plays Mira Murati, and that Ilya Sutskever is played by Yura Borisov, who everyone in the world loved in Anora, another Neon best picture winner.
Artificial also boasts Italian director Luca Guadagnino, who helmed Call Me by Your Name and Challengers. Cooper Koch, Cooper Hoffman, and Jason Schwartzman are also among the cast.
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