Amazon MGM drops Artificial, Luca Guadagnino's Sam Altman film

Amazon MGM has dropped Artificial, Luca Guadagnino's film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to reporting this week. The project, which had been in development for roughly a year, stars Andrew Garfield as Altman and dramatizes the five-day span in November 2023 when the OpenAI board fired Altman, triggering an employee revolt that ended with his reinstatement and a reshuffled board. The cast also includes Monica Barbaro, known for A Complete Unknown.

Guadagnino, whose recent credits include Challengers and Queer, was attached to direct from a script covering one of the most public leadership crises in Silicon Valley history. No reason for the studio's exit has been disclosed, and it's unclear whether the project will find a new home or remain shelved. The November 2023 boardroom drama saw more than 700 OpenAI employees threaten to quit unless Altman returned—a standoff that concluded within days when the board capitulated.

Hollywood's interest in the AI boom has grown alongside the technology itself, though few prestige projects have reached production. Artificial was among the first to attach A-list talent and a director with festival pedigree. The timing of Amazon MGM's exit carries particular weight: Amazon Web Services hosts training runs for multiple frontier labs, and Amazon has invested billions in Anthropic, OpenAI's chief rival. Whether that relationship influenced the decision remains speculation, but the optics of a tech giant bankrolling a dramatization of a competitor's internal chaos were always delicate. The project had been announced in early 2025.