GoKawiilAmazon MGM is no longer partnering with Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino on his forthcoming Sam Altman biopic, Artificial.
The nearly completed film, starring Andrew Garfield as the controversial OpenAI founder, was originally slated for release in early 2027.
The premiere date, however, is now in limbo after the film was removed from the studio’s roster months after Amazon agreed to expand its $38 billion, multi-year deal to run OpenAI’s systems on its cloud services. The new partnership, announced in February, includes a $50 billion investment in the AI company and the development of customized AI models.
“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 said to Variety in a statement. “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 Independent has contacted Amazon for further comment.
open image in gallery Luca Guadagnino's next feature film, 'Artificial,' is a biopic about the OpenAI founder Sam Altman (pictured) ( Getty Images )
Artificial would have marked the Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name director’s third Amazon film, following the critically acclaimed Zendaya-led tennis romance Challengers (2024) and the academic scandal drama After the Hunt (2025), starring Julia Roberts.
The new movie is said to chronicle the brief period when Altman was abruptly ousted as OpenAI’s CEO in 2023 and subsequently rehired. Monica Barbaro and Ike Barinholtz star alongside Garfield as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, while Yura Borisov, Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet, Angus Imrie, Chris O’Dowd, Mark Rylance and Margo’s Got Money Troubles breakout Thaddea Graham round out the cast.
It is unclear exactly why the film was dropped, but according to Variety, the news came after it had already undergone positive screen tests.
open image in gallery 'Artificial' would have been Luca Guadagnino's third movie with Amazon ( AFP/Getty )
... continue reading