Amazon drops Sam Altman biopic 'Artificial' after $50 billion OpenAI deal

Amazon MGM Studios has removed the nearly completed film Artificial from its slate. The project, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Andrew Garfield as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, also features a cast that includes Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk and several other actors. The biopic dramatizes Altman's 2023 ousting and rapid rehiring at OpenAI. The decision was announced shortly after Amazon disclosed a $50 billion partnership and investment in OpenAI, a deal that will see OpenAI run on Amazon’s cloud services. Amazon said the film would be “better served if it were released by a different studio” and pledged to help the filmmakers find a new distributor. The movie was reportedly in post‑production, with a budget around $40‑50 million and a planned early‑2027 release, and had received positive reactions at recent test screenings. No explicit link between the partnership and the cancellation has been confirmed, but the timing has spurred speculation about corporate influence on the project.