Amazon has decided not to distribute the feature film Artificial, which is based on OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, only months after striking major business deals with the AI company. A company spokesperson said, “It’s better if it is released by another studio,” and added that Amazon is working with the filmmakers to find a new home for the movie.
The film, directed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino from a script by Simon Rich, stars Andrew Garfield as Altman, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever. It centers on Altman’s failed ouster from OpenAI in late 2023. Amazon MGM announced the project in June 2025, with plans to release it in the U.S. in early 2027.
Filming began on July 30 in San Francisco and later moved to Turin, Italy, before wrapping in October. The movie is now in the final stages of post-production and is described as nearly ready for release.
The reversal comes after Amazon’s relationship with OpenAI changed in recent months. Altman attended Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos’s wedding a few weeks after the film was announced, and the companies later signed several deals, including Amazon cloud services purchases worth $38 billion and investments totaling $50 billion in OpenAI. The article notes that Bezos has previously intervened in ways seen as protecting his business interests, including at the Washington Post, where he blocked a pro-Kamala Harris endorsement and later oversaw major layoffs.
