Amazon Pulls "Artificial" After $50B OpenAI Bet, Takes the Alt-man Out of Distribution 🎬

Amazon has shelved "Artificial," its nearly completed Luca Guadagnino-directed film about Sam Altman's 2023 ouster as OpenAI CEO, and is shopping the project to rival studios after deciding not to release it on Prime Video or through Amazon MGM Studios. The decision was confirmed to Puck late Thursday by Mike Hopkins, who oversees Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. Hopkins relayed the choice to Guadagnino and the producing team, prompting Creative Artists Agency to begin screening the film for potential new distributors.

The film, written by Simon Rich, stars Andrew Garfield as Altman and Yura Borisov as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and has drawn comparisons to "The Social Network." According to Puck, an early script portrayed Altman as power-hungry and manipulative, including a scene in which 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 cut grew considerably darker than the original pitch, leading Hopkins to halt its release after viewing it.

"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 Puck. "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 reversal comes months after Amazon committed $50 billion to OpenAI, deepening a financial and cloud computing partnership between the two companies. The timing also coincides with rising anticipation around OpenAI's upcoming IPO, as well as Altman's cultivated ties to the Trump administration—relationships Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos have also sought to maintain.