Several of the buyers who screened Luca Guadagnino’s hotly anticipated “Artificial” in the days after Amazon MGM Studios abruptly dropped the film have passed on acquiring it, sources tell Variety.
Focus Features, Warner Bros.’ Clockwork, A24 and Netflix have all stepped away, according to those sources. But the Sam Altman drama, which is nearly completed, isn’t without suitors. Variety has learned that Mubi is pursuing the film, with Neon also possibly circling.
CAA Media Finance, which represents Guadagnino, has been running screenings to find the film a new home since Amazon’s exit. The picture — a reported $40 million production starring Andrew Garfield as the OpenAI chief executive — was shown to a cluster of potential distributors in the last couple days. The picture is rumored to be portraying Altman as a pathological liar and Musk (Ike Barinholtz) as highly antipathetic.
Amazon MGM, which developed “Artificial” and had slated it for an early 2027 release, walked away from the project entirely — a decision that landed just months after the company announced a $50 billion investment in OpenAI as part of a multi-year cloud partnership. Amazon has said it believes the film would be “better served” at another studio and that it is working with the filmmakers to find it a new home, while denying that the subject matter drove the decision.
Even for independent companies with AI ambitions or big tech entanglements, there could be reasons for being cautious around the film. A24, for instance, is backed by Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, which holds a seat on the board and ranks among OpenAI’s largest and most high-profile backers.
Mubi seems like a natural fit for the film, considering the indie distributor already has a relationship with Guadagnino: the company released his Burroughs adaptation “Queer” across multiple international territories, handled U.K. theatrical on “Suspiria” and took worldwide rights to his short film “The Staggering Girl.” Mubi played the white knight before: the banner notoriously rescued Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” after it was dropped by Universal in the run-up to the Cannes Film Festival. The film ultimately won a prize at Cannes and went on to earn five Oscar nominations. That said, “The Substance” was less of a gamble because it cost less than half and didn’t portray real – and powerful — people. But like “The Apprentice,” another controversial film that starred Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and scared off distributors before being bought by Briarcliff, “Artificial” could turn out to be an Oscar contender.
Written by “SNL” alum Simon Rich and described as a “Social Network” for the AI era, “Artificial” recounts the chaotic 2023 weekend in which Altman was fired and rehired by OpenAI’s board within days. The first stretch of the film centers on co-founder Ilya Sutskever (Yura Borisov), the idealistic scientific mind behind the company, before the boardroom power struggle takes over. The starry ensemble also features Monica Barbaro as former CTO Mira Murati, alongside Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet, Chris O’Dowd and Mark Rylance.
Currently in the final stages of post-production, “Artificial” had been eyeing a festival launch at SXSW before Amazon’s exit. Depending on who buys it, the movie could now be in play for the Venice Film Festival. Should Mubi land it, a world premiere on the Lido, where Guadagnino has unveiled many of his films (including his latest film “After the Hunt”) would be expected.
Reps for Mubi and Neon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
