{"id":530044,"date":"2026-07-02T21:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T21:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530044\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T21:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T21:28:11","slug":"amazons-sam-altman-film-artificial-reveals-a-i-s-influence-on-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530044\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s Sam Altman film Artificial reveals A.I.\u2019s influence on Hollywood."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Silicon Valley doesn\u2019t just want to add more artificial intelligence to the moviemaking process\u2014it seems to want some control over what Hollywood says about A.I. altogether. Look at what\u2019s been happening with Artificial, the Luca Guadagnino\u2013directed movie about OpenAI\u2019s failed attempt in late 2023 to oust CEO Sam Altman<\/a>, played here by Andrew Garfield. The film was initially a tough sell: Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. reportedly<\/a> refused the script in 2024 out of concern over the portrayals of Altman and Elon Musk (played by Ike Barinholtz). So Amazon MGM Studios became the surprising benefactor, offering Guadagnino a $40 million budget\u2014the same amount<\/a> of cash it spent to acquire Melania\u2014along with a 2027 release date. That is, until an early cut was screened for Amazon MGM chief Mike Hopkins, who subsequently decided to drop the whole thing<\/a> last month. The company offered no real reason for the about-face, other than a public statement declaring in part, \u201cWe believe that\u00a0Artificial\u00a0will be better served if it were released by a different studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

A different studio finally did step in this week. Neon, the indie production house behind such modern classics as Parasite and Anatomy of a Fall, said on Tuesday it would take Artificial from Amazon MGM<\/a>, after weeks of rejections by the likes of Netflix and A24. But this isn\u2019t a Hollywood redemption saga. Rather, it\u2019s perhaps the most blatant example yet of the chill enveloping the film industry as Big Tech increasingly consolidates its control\u2014both by injecting more A.I. tools into the creative process and by owning the major distributors outright. The more the traditional studios get taken over and reimagined by the tech world, the fewer stories we\u2019ll see greenlit and created for the masses.<\/p>\n

Take another look at the firms that dismissed Artificial; almost all of them are connected to the tech at the story\u2019s center. Paramount, on the verge of acquiring<\/a> Warner Bros. Discovery, is financing that expansion in no small part with gobs of money from Oracle<\/a>, the software giant that\u2019s established multiple data center deals with OpenAI. Netflix is so psyched about generative software that it\u2019s spent the year<\/a> acquiring an A.I. production studio, launching a different studio for A.I.-animated shorts, and re-creating<\/a> Gene Wilder\u2019s voice for a Willy Wonka\u2013themed game show. (And yes, Netflix has previously worked with OpenAI<\/a> to rework its search and recommendation engines.) A24 is still staring down floods of digital rage from filmgoers upset by its $75 million initiative with Google DeepMind<\/a> to research the utility of A.I. tools for filmmakers.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Amazon itself, owner of MGM Studios since 2022. While the multitrillion-dollar corporation has been in the A.I. game a while now, it only started getting into business with OpenAI recently, as the latter sought to gradually sever some of its long-standing ties<\/a> to Microsoft. First came a $38 billion November deal<\/a> in which Sam Altman\u2019s firm agreed to buy computing capacity from Amazon Web Services over the next seven years; next, a February expansion of this partnership, where Amazon agreed to take a $50 billion stake in OpenAI as long as the latter agreed to spend $100 billion on AWS chips<\/a> over the next eight years; finally, in April, Amazon gained the ability<\/a> to offer OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Codex models on its own A.I. platform.<\/p>\n

Essentially, right after Artificial got approved and started filming, its production house started building a long-term, highly lucrative partnership with the tech firm that provides the backdrop for the movie\u2019s story, through a series of cooperative agreements where Amazon gets way more money from OpenAI than it gives in turn. Regardless of whether this relationship actually influenced the decision to drop the film, it\u2019s undoubtedly important context for Amazon MGM\u2019s handling of the project. And even though the cost of working with Luca Guadagnino\u2014who\u2019d previously done well for Amazon MGM with acclaimed hits like Challengers<\/a>\u2014came out to a fraction of Amazon\u2019s OpenAI investment, the studio ultimately chose not to move forward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Nitish Pahwa
\n There\u2019s a Global Shortage of a Crucial Material. You\u2019re Using It Right Now. It\u2019s About to Get Worse.
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon might have lost a lot of money on the similarly budgeted Melania, but it got to suck up to President Donald Trump and put itself up for government contracts in the process. Going through with Artificial just meant potentially pissing off Sam Altman, who\u2019s been pitching the case<\/a> that A.I. is good for Hollywood even as he repeatedly clashes with celebrity heavyweights like Scarlett Johansson<\/a> and Jeremy O. Harris<\/a>. Even more important than preserving Altman\u2019s feelings: ensuring that that $100 billion check cashes. Also: keeping that $50 billion stake intact for whenever OpenAI goes public<\/a> and gifts investors with flush new cash from open trading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This Star-Studded Movie Cost $40 Million to Make. It Hasn\u2019t Been Released Yet. The Reason Why Is Nefarious.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Guadagnino, for his part, didn\u2019t seem too surprised by Amazon\u2019s chickening out. But he still recognizes the stakes of allowing the tech-and-A.I. executives to shape what gets put out and what doesn\u2019t. \u201cIt is completely changing the face, not just of society in terms of consumption and how we relate to these tools, but the very face of the identity of a place like the United States and the entire world, with the rise of this small oligarchy that wields truly radical control,\u201d he told the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRadical control\u201d is right; the techies are literally consolidating the entertainment sector and maintaining outright control over deals and output. Apple TV+ forbade Jon Stewart from hosting a Biden administration regulator on his show; Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison already took over one fabled studio and censored parts of its TV division while also making a bid to take over Warner Bros. Discovery. The more tech money rules these creative industries, the fewer truly critical, probing projects will be approved, as the oligarchs on top do their best to keep things copacetic with one another, whether for the sake of friendship or business.<\/p>\n

So, Artificial has thankfully found a new home, but this saga may just be the beginning. As indie studios like Neon get increasingly crowded out of a tech-controlled Hollywood or find themselves compromised via lucrative A.I. deals, where can tech-critical filmmakers hope to go next?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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