A finished Luca Guadagnino film is currently without a distributor. Amazon MGM Studios dropped Artificial from its slate following the company's announcement of a $50 billion investment in OpenAI, the very subject of the film. The studio said it has "the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker" but believes the film will be "better served if it were released by a different studio."
Artificial, written by SNL alum Simon Rich and budgeted at $40 million, centers on the turbulent week in November 2023 when Sam Altman was fired and rehired at OpenAI within days. Andrew Garfield plays Altman, with Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and Yura Borisov as chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Ike Barinholtz portrays Elon Musk. The supporting cast includes Mark Rylance, Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Billie Lourd, and Chris O'Dowd. The film was originally set for a SXSW premiere before Amazon pulled out.
The buyer landscape has narrowed quickly. According to Variety, Netflix, A24, Focus Features, and Warner Bros.' Clockwork have all declined to acquire the film after screenings. A24's exit was reportedly complicated by investor Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital connections to OpenAI's board. Mubi is actively pursuing the film, according to Variety, with Neon also possibly in consideration. Mubi previously released Guadagnino's Queer and maintains a longstanding relationship with the director.
Guadagnino spoke about the situation publicly on June 26, telling Italian television: "I can't say much because we are right in the middle of this situation." He was more expansive on the technology itself, saying the real concern is how people "are completely changing the face, not just of society but the very face of the identity of a place like the United States and the entire world." The director cited a 2003 precedent in which CBS shelved a Reagan biopic after political pressure, only for it to land on Showtime, as a possible model for what comes next.