Luca Guadagnino's Sam Altman Movie 'Artificial' Dropped by Amazon
Amazon has dropped Luca Guadagnino's upcoming film 'Artificial,' a biopic about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The project, which was in development at the studio, is no longer moving forward under Amazon, though it may be shopped elsewhere.
Background
Luca Guadagnino is the acclaimed Italian director of *Call Me by Your Name*, *Suspiria*, *Challengers*, and *Queer*. Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT — a central figure in the current AI boom. The film *Artificial* was dramatizing Altman's 2023 ouster and reinstatement by OpenAI's board, a chaotic few days that became a major tech-business story. Amazon MGM Studios had the project in development but dropped it, likely over the usual reasons (budget, creative differences, or hesitance about a biopic on a still-active, controversial figure). This matters because it shows how quickly and contentiously the "AI culture war" is being fought: even a top director's film about the most famous AI CEO can't get made, revealing the difficulty of telling recent-tech stories while the events are still unfolding and the subjects remain powerful.