AMAZON DROPS SAM ALTMAN BIOPIC AFTER OPENAI PARTNERSHIP

Amazon has withdrawn from distributing Artificial, a film biography of Sam Altman directed by Luca Guadagnino, according to a statement from the company. Amazon stated that it believes "Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio" and said it is working with the film-making team to secure alternative distribution. The decision follows Amazon's announcement of a significant partnership with OpenAI, the company Altman leads as chief executive. Amazon will invest $15 billion immediately in OpenAI, with a further $35 billion to follow when certain conditions are met, building on a $38 billion cloud computing agreement signed last year.

The film stars Andrew Garfield as Altman and depicts events surrounding his firing and reinstatement as OpenAI's chief executive in 2023. Simon Rich wrote the screenplay for the project, which completed filming in autumn 2024. The narrative is reported to centre on Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder, played by Yura Borisov, who was among the board members who removed Altman from his role before Altman's reinstatement a week later. Amazon acknowledged its "utmost respect and admiration" for Guadagnino as a filmmaker and said it hopes to maintain its longstanding relationship with him.

The film had been scheduled for a limited awards-qualifying release in the United States over Christmas, followed by a wide release in early 2027. The timing was designed to avoid direct competition with Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning. The film now requires a new distributor to proceed with its planned release schedule.