Netflix, A24, Focus Features, and Warner Bros.' Clockwork have all reportedly declined to distribute “Artificial,” the Luca Guadagnino-directed biopic about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, after Amazon MGM abruptly dropped the nearly finished film, according to The Verge. Amazon said the project would be better off at another studio, but the exit followed its $50B investment into OpenAI this year, stoking fears that studios won't touch work casting AI executives in a harsh light. Neon and Mubi remain the only interested buyers. The film dramatizes the 2023 stretch when Altman was ousted from OpenAI and reinstated days later. The pattern runs wider, with Google's DeepMind striking a $75M filmmaking-tools deal with A24 that drew backlash, alongside AI moves at Disney, Netflix, and Paramount Skydance.
