"Not new": Luca Guadagnino not surprised after his OpenAI movie 'Artificial' dropped by Amazon
Washington DC, June 28
Luca Guadagnino said that he wasn't suprised after his nearly-finished Sam Altman movie 'Artificial' was dropped shortly after Amazon announced a 50 billion USD investment in OpenAI, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
"I can't say much because we are right in the middle of this situation, [but] these are industrial policies that are certainly not new, " Guadagnino told Italian television as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter.
According to the outlet, Guadagnino cited an incident from 2003 when CBS cancelled the broadcast of The Regans, a miniseries about President Ronald Reagan and his family, starring Josh Brolin and Judy Davis, following a conservative backlash. (The series eventually aired on CBS's sister network Showtime.)
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon pulled out of Guadagnino's film shortly after announcing its 50 billion USD strategic partnership with OpenAI, a deal that will see the two companies jointly build custom AI models for Amazon's internal engineering teams.
When Amazon dropped it, Guadagnino's 40 million USD Social Network-esque feature was nearly finished and was expected to premiere at one of the fall film festivals.
Besides Garfield, "Artificial" supports a huge cast including Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Yura Borisov as former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk.
Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet, Angus Imrie, Chris O'Dowd and Mark Rylance also feature.
The film was written by 'SNL' alum Simon Rich and focuses on the brief period Altman was fired from his position at OpenAI in 2023 and then rehired.
— ANI
Reader Comments
While I understand the pragmatic decision, it's disappointing that a nearly-finished film about such a significant tech event gets shelved. Kal, if Amazon had invested in Indian AI startups, would they cancel our movies too? Feels like a double standard. 🤔
Luca's comparison with the Reagan miniseries is spot on. Corporate censorship isn't limited to the West—here in India, we've seen films like 'Padmaavat' targeted. The irony is that a film about OpenAI's drama gets killed by Amazon's investment in the very same company. Art imitates life, no? 😅
As someone who follows tech, this feels like a loss for creative storytelling. The Altman saga is ripe for a Social Network-style treatment. I hope another studio picks it up. India's film industry could learn from this—we need more critical tech dramas, not just masala. 🚀
It's ironic that a film about OpenAI's internal conflict gets dropped because of OpenAI's deal. Reminds me of how we in India sometimes face similar censorship when media companies have financial ties. Who controls the narrative? The one with the deepest pockets, it seems. 😐
Respectfully, this is a shame for the cast and crew who put in 40 million USD worth of work. I wish Amazon had at least let it premiere as planned. India's streaming platforms are also guilty of such sudden cancellations—think of that Netflix series 'Baahubali: The Lost Legends'. Art deserves better. 🌟
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