Guadagnino's Sam Altman movie dropped by Amazon after partnership with OpenAI
Amazon has dropped Luca Guadagnino's planned film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman following the director's partnership with the AI company. The project was in early development before the decision was made.
Background
- Luca Guadagnino is the acclaimed Italian filmmaker behind *Call Me by Your Name*, *Suspiria*, *Challengers*, and *Queer*. He was set to direct a film about Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT).
- Amazon MGM Studios was originally developing the project, but dropped it after Guadagnino's production company signed a partnership deal with OpenAI — a rival to Amazon's own AI efforts (Amazon has invested billions in Anthropic, a competing AI firm, and develops its own AI models through AWS).
- The film is described as a dramatic biopic centered on Altman's rise and the 2023 boardroom drama where he was briefly fired from OpenAI. The casting and script were reportedly far along.
- The situation highlights the growing entanglement of Hollywood with Big Tech: major studios are now making creative decisions based on the corporate AI alliances and rivalries of their parent companies, not just traditional film business considerations.