“Artificial” star Andrew Garfield is weighing on Amazon MGM Studios’ decision to drop the Luca Guadagnino-directed film about Sam Altman and OpenAI.
“I was and I wasn’t [surprised],” the Oscar winner told me Wednesday while promoting his new movie “The Magic Faraway Tree.” “I think there are certain things that fit certain places and don’t fit other places and they [Amazon] were nothing but supportive and nothing but yencouraging while we were making the film. Luca has a really great relationship with them and I’ve developed a lovely relationship with them as well. I’m grateful that they’ve helped the film to find the home that it was meant to find.”
The Simon Rich-scripted film chronicles OpenAI’s firing and rehiring of Altman, played by Garfield, in 2023.
Neon acquired the nearly-completed $40 million film after Amazon MGM Studios announced that it believed it would “be better served if it were released by a different studio.” Amazon’s decision came just months after the company signed a major partnership with OpenAI, including a $50 billion investment, and less than a year after Altman attended Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s wedding.
The cast also includes Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Cooper Koch and Billie Lourd.
