Amazon cancels the screening of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's biopic film "Artificial" and seeks to resell it to other distributors

BlockBeats News, June 19 — Amazon has withdrawn the release plan for the film Artificial, which tells the story of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s brief removal in 2023, and has begun seeking to resell it to other film companies.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman and Yura Borisov as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. The plot has been likened by the public to an AI version of The Social Network. It is reported that early drafts portrayed Altman more negatively, describing him as power-hungry and skilled at manipulation; one scene even cites computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton’s assessment, saying that Altman is “one of the most skilled at manipulating others on Earth.”

According to reports, as the film’s final tone became darker than initially envisioned, Mike Hopkins—an executive in charge of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios—decided to cancel the release after watching a rough cut.

The decision came months after Amazon invested 50 billion USD in OpenAI. Insiders say that, as Altman’s relationship with the Trump administration has grown increasingly close—and as Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos also hope to maintain related ties—the film’s political and commercial sensitivity has risen. At present, the talent agency CAA is looking for a new distributor for Artificial.