Amazon Shelves Sam Altman Film 'Artificial,' Seeks New Distributor

In brief

Amazon has pulled its nearly finished Sam Altman film "Artificial" from its release schedule and is now shopping it to other distributors.

The Andrew Garfield-starring film reportedly portrays Altman unflatteringly, and Amazon's decision comes following a $50 billion investment into the AI giant.

CAA is now screening the film for potential new distributors, per a report.

Amazon has abruptly shelved "Artificial," its high-profile film about Sam Altman's brief 2023 ouster as OpenAI CEO, pulling the nearly completed project from its release calendar and shopping it to rival studios instead.

The studio confirmed the decision to media publication Puck late Thursday, with the move made by Mike Hopkins, who oversees Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. Hopkins told director Luca Guadagnino (“Challengers,” “Call Me By Your Name”) and the producing team that Amazon would not move forward with the planned release.

“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,” an Amazon spokesperson told the outlet. “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.”

The film, written by Simon Rich, stars Andrew Garfield as Altman and Yura Borisov as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, in a story drawing comparisons to Facebook founding drama, "The Social Network." Puck says an early script depicted Altman unflatteringly, portraying him as power-hungry and manipulative; in one scene, computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton called Altman "one of the most manipulative people on the planet."

A person familiar with Amazon's thinking said the finished film's tone grew considerably darker than the original pitch, prompting Hopkins to halt its release after viewing a cut.