{"id":851439,"date":"2026-09-17T22:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851439\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T22:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:48:10","slug":"universal-facing-backlash-over-musk-now-may-keep-alex-gibneys-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851439\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal, Facing Backlash Over ‘Musk,’ Now May Keep Alex Gibney’s Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUniversal Pictures, which has found itself caught in the middle of a battle between the world\u2019s richest man and a hard-hitting investigative documentary by Alex Gibney<\/a>, is now leaning towards releasing the buzzy, four-hour Musk feature after all.<\/p>\n

\n\tExecutives at the studio are now discussing internally how to deal with what\u2019s become a political football, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. The studio has been both publicly and privately silent with its plans leading up to a THR story<\/a> that reported that Universal was backing away from releasing the feature in markets outside of North America. Some insiders believed that the studio would ultimately relinquish the film and return rights to the movie to its producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut THR\u2018s article sparked criticism directed at the studio, leading to a series of internal meetings at the Comcast-owned film unit. The talks are ongoing but one studio insider believes that they have progressed enough to the point that Universal will ultimately keep the film and go forward with its distribution plan. <\/p>\n

\n\tUniversal comms chief Evan Langweiler told THR, \u201cThe studio remains committed to releasing it in theaters internationally. We\u2019re currently working through a release strategy.\u201d But he didn\u2019t offer further details about timing or platform in any particular market. <\/p>\n

\n\tIf Universal did cut loose the doc it would need to pay filmmakers a kill fee, a source familiar with the deal\u2019s structure had said. Gibney\u2019s team would then shop the project around to secure a new distribution partner.<\/p>\n

\n\tGibney\u2019s doc, which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival, immediately struck a nerve within Musk\u2019s camp, and the mogul has described the project as a \u201chit piece.\u201d A lawyer for Musk, Alex Spiro, sent a letter<\/a> to Gibney\u2019s production company putting the title on \u201cformal legal notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHBO had acquired North American TV and streaming rights in 2023 and plans release of the doc in the first quarter of next year, Bleecker Street has North American rights and Universal currently holds the rights to theatrical distribution overseas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Pictures, which has found itself caught in the middle of a battle between the world\u2019s richest man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[332262,11,88],"class_list":["post-851439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alex-gibney","tag-elon-musk","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}