{"id":621254,"date":"2026-10-05T12:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621254\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T12:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:24:16","slug":"how-sam-altman-and-mark-zuckerberg-became-hollywoods-newest-punching-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621254\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg became Hollywood\u2019s newest punching bags"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Sam Altman thinks the upcoming movie about him looks terrible.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI did see the movie trailer,\u201d the OpenAI founder<\/a> recently told CNBC of \u201cArtificial,\u201d which comes out this Christmas. \u201cI mean, it looks like an awful movie, but I appreciate people\u2019s creativity, and I really do support that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Luca Guadagnino-helmed biopic<\/a> starring Andrew Garfield as Altman is just one of a rash of major films this year tackling the small cadre of eccentric tech founders who increasingly dominate public and private life. In the next few weeks, audiences will also be treated to Jeremy Strong as a painfully awkward and domineering Mark Zuckerberg in \u201cThe Social Reckoning,\u201d Aaron Sorkin\u2019s long-awaited sequel to \u201cThe Social Network,\u201d as well as \u201cMusk,\u201d an exhaustive 4-hour documentary by Alex Gibney about the wealthiest man in the world. Then there\u2019s the downfall of jailed crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a> coming soon to Netflix via a series called \u201cThe Altruists,\u201d and a mysterious documentary<\/a> by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. It\u2019s a tech movie bonanza.\n <\/p>\n

\"23038489<\/p>\n

“Musk” Director discusses Elon Musk’s “enormous power”\n <\/p>\n

Filmmaker Alex Gibney told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Elon Musk has “enormous power and no idea of what to do with it.” His documentary “Musk” opens in New York and Los Angeles on October 9, then nationwide October 16.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“Musk” Director discusses Elon Musk’s “enormous power”<\/p>\n

0:55<\/p>\n

\n Tech founders used to be our saviors, the geniuses we were told would usher in a new era of connection and productivity. Now, they\u2019ve lost their luster as the industry itself faces a reckoning, at least in public opinion. As AI spawns a more horrifying headline every day, a vast majority of Americans now say they\u2019re more concerned than excited about AI and about data centers, according to a recent CNN poll.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n The tech bro film trend speaks to the \u201cwell-founded resentment from so many Americans that they are watching these elites, these people who live in a bubble, who are wealthier than God, wealthier than they will ever be, foist technology on them that they don\u2019t necessarily want in their lives,\u201d said Katie Drummond, the editor-in-chief of WIRED.\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople are looking for outlets to express that, and there aren\u2019t very many,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Social Network\u201d is the foundational tech bro film, the genesis of the genre. Sorkin\u2019s 2010 best picture nominee follows Zuckerberg from his awkward Harvard days, when he started what would eventually become Facebook, originally a website to rate his female classmates by attractiveness. Jesse Eisenberg\u2019s version of young Zuckerberg is a jerk, a selfish striver who\u2019s rude to his girlfriend and betrays his best friend (played by Garfield, in his first flash of tech bro fame).\n <\/p>\n

\"Jesse<\/p>\n

\n But the antihero also has a boyish, brash energy that makes him empathetic at turns; he\u2019s fun to watch. (Still, Zuckerberg was no fan of the film, saying<\/a> he found it \u201churtful.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

\n Strong, on the other hand, portrays Zuckerberg circa 2021, after he\u2019d already been a billionaire for more than a decade and faced a cascade of scandals that made the backstabbing of \u201cThe Social Network\u201d look like child\u2019s play. His version of Zuck \u2014 complete with tiny micro-bangs \u2014 is almost painfully stiff, an unlikeable tyrant, a darker portrayal that shows how completely the tech honeymoon has ended.\n <\/p>\n

\"swisher<\/p>\n

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg lays out new philosophy on AI\n <\/p>\n

\"swisher<\/p>\n

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg lays out new philosophy on AI<\/p>\n

0:54<\/p>\n

\n The widespread \u2014 but not universal \u2014 public \u201centhusiasm and that positivity and that trust has eroded in a way that right now feels irreparable,\u201d Drummond said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hollywood\u2019s portrayal of tech has gone through several phases, said Joe Street<\/a>, a film scholar who wrote the book \u201cSilicon Valley Cinema.\u201d <\/a>In the halcyon early 2010s \u2014 when Zuckerberg was, if pilloried in the \u201cSocial Network,\u201d also lauded as Time\u2019s Person of the Year \u2014 shows like HBO\u2019s \u201cSilicon Valley\u201d made tech founders seem like hapless nerds. The 2013 biopic \u201cJobs\u201d showed its subject as a complex genius.\n <\/p>\n

\n But in the later 2010s, there was a string of mainstream films with tech founder villains, including \u201cJurassic World,\u201d \u201cVenom\u201d and \u201cTerminator Genisys.\u201d Street calls the archetype the \u201cturbo-capitalist tech bro,\u201d who values profit above morality and human lives. At the same time, big tech started to taste some of its first backlash. The Cambridge Analytica scandal<\/a> broke in 2018, revealing how the personal data of millions of Facebook users had been used without their consent, sparking massive scrutiny.\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n More recently, Ed Norton has portrayed a Musk-esque billionaire in \u201cGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,\u201d <\/a>and Taika Waititi a narcissistic, scamming CEO in \u201cFree Guy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n What unifies those films, per Street, is that the villains get their comeuppance (Irrfan Khan\u2019s marauding tech founder character in \u201cJurassic World\u201d becomes dinosaur food). \u201cThere\u2019s a bit of almost like wish fulfillment here,\u201d he said. In the films, the fictional founders are \u201cultimately dim-witted human beings \u2014 nature will bring them down.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Now come the tech bro films of 2026 \u2014 which are fundamentally different. Instead of parodying tech founders in fictional stories, they take on real lives of men who, far from receiving their comeuppance, are more powerful than ever.\n <\/p>\n

\"Future<\/p>\n

\n Founders are not loving the cinematic feeding frenzy on their lives.\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk has called the doc<\/a> about him \u201ca hit piece\u201d devoid of integrity (his X war with Gibney and refusal to sit for an interview forms part of the film\u2019s plot).\n <\/p>\n

\n Zuckerberg has yet to comment on \u201cThe Social Reckoning,\u201d though he\u2019s still insisting<\/a> \u201cThe Social Network\u201d got his motivations all wrong (but at least got his fashion choices right).\n <\/p>\n

\n Making films about tech giants appears to be getting increasingly tricky as the industry swallows up ever more of the economy, including the entertainment industry. Take \u201cArtificial\u201d: The movie was originally set to be distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, the tech giant\u2019s film and TV branch. But Amazon dropped the film in June, saying<\/a> it \u201cwill be better served if it were released by a different studio.\u201d The decision came a few months after Amazon inked a massive partnership with OpenAI. Amazon didn\u2019t respond to a question about whether the decision to drop \u201cArtificial\u201d and the OpenAI partnership were linked.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cArtificial\u201d was eventually salvaged by a much smaller distributor, NEON, and is set to premiere in theaters on Christmas. NEON and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Drummond said she found the resuscitation of \u201cArtificial\u201d to be \u201cheartening\u201d but \u201cthere are these, like flashing yellow or yellow-red warning signs that all is not well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Altman, for his part, seems to understand why the apocalyptic AI headlines might make him a target for derision, and he can take a joke at his expense. Or so he says. \u201cI get why people have anxiety,\u201d he told CNBC. \u201cIf they need to like project that anxiety on someone or have like a little bit of relief and poke fun at me, it doesn\u2019t bother me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"22966157<\/p>\n

AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood wants an Oscar\n <\/p>\n

Tilly Norwood has been billed the first AI “actor” in Hollywood which raises questions about what awards synthetic performers should be nominated for. In an exclusive chat with CNN\u2019s Elizabeth Wagmeister, Tilly Norwood responded to questions about winning an Oscar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood wants an Oscar<\/p>\n

0:50<\/p>\n

\n As AI threatens to decimate creative jobs, \u201cHollywood is really quite threatened by Silicon Valley at an industrial level,\u201d said Street, the film scholar. Films that criticize tech founders are \u201calmost like a warning to us, but also it\u2019s a way of them reasserting Hollywood\u2019s importance in our culture.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n If studios are wary on the one hand of angering tech leaders with unflattering portrayals, on the other they\u2019re clearly anticipating audience interest in stories about some of the most powerful men of our time.\n <\/p>\n

\n Part of that could be a way for everyday people to channel \u201cthe anger and disillusionment and alienation\u201d at the tech behemoths that seem omnipotent \u2014 and particularly at the rapid proliferation of AI, Drummond said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be nice on a Friday night to go see a movie that allows you to sort of channel some of that fury towards Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, or Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman?\u201d she said. \u201cYou want to feel some sense of validation that your anger is well-placed, and I think these movies are going to provide that kind of outlet for audiences.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And, after all, Hollywood loves a villain.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman and Elon Musk, for very good reason, make for very good villains in film,\u201d Drummond said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Altman thinks the upcoming movie about him looks terrible. \u201cI did see the movie trailer,\u201d the OpenAI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-621254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}