Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | June 19, 2026
Amazon MGM has decided it doesn’t want to release Luca Guadanino’s movie about OpenAI, and we’re sure it has nothing to do with their recent deal with OpenAI. Artificial stars Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman and was close to completion when Amazon told Deadline:
“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. 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.”
Puck was the first to report the news and they noted how this comes months after Amazon made a deal with OpenAI worth around $50 billion. I’m sure that has nothing to do with the decision to drop a multi-award-winning filmmaker’s work that may or may not be critical about one of the biggest losers in the tech world. It’s a totally neutral decision and not another sign of Jeff Bezos dirtying his knees to grovel at the feet of Trump and his cronies. See, they paid for Brett Ratner’s Melania Trump documentary for the art!
Artificial was billed as a satirical drama that delved into the brief period where Altman was fired then rehired at OpenAI. If Amazon is willing to drop it, then one can only assume the movie is pretty critical about Altman and his big plagiarism machine. It is written by Simon Rich, an SNL alum, and stars Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, so I feel like we can safely say it wasn’t going to be a fawning portrait of genius. Did Altman catch wind of it and ask ChatGPT why the second Spider-Man was being such a meanie to him?
We have to hope that another studio picks it up and runs with the publicity, lest Amazon find an excuse to bury it entirely. Break up all media monopolies.
