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Amazon MGM Studios shocked the public by abruptly canceling its upcoming movie about OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Altman is the CEO of the AI company, which runs ChatGPT, and last year it was announced that a biographical comedy drama was in the works.
The role of Altman was due to be played by Andrew Garfield, with other stars including Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov and Jason Schwartzman.
The movie, titled Artificial, was due to center around the controversial firing and rehiring of Altman from the OpenAI board back in 2023.
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Although this didn’t last long as he was reinstated a few days later following backlash from employees and investors.
However, despite a buzz around the film, it has since been announced that Amazon MGM Studios no longer intends to release it.
This comes just months after OpenAI and Amazon announced a major partnership which involves the e-commerce giant investing a whopping $50 billion into Altman’s firm.
The film studio was preparing for the movie to be released next year but this recent news has thrown its future into the air.
Speaking to Variety, a spokesperson for Amazon said: “We have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino (the movie’s director) as an award-winning filmmaker - not to mention a longstanding relationship that we hope to continue.
“We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.”
Sam Altman was fired from the OpenAI board by its board of directors on November 17, 2023.
In an official message published to the company’s website, it read that the ‘board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI’.
This came after there were employee concerns voiced about Altman’s handling of AI safety, along with allegations about abusive behavior.
However, just days later on November 22, Altman was rehired to his post after the board received pressure to do so from both employees and investors of the firm.
Naturally, both events sparked a reaction online, and even as far as the stock market, which suffered impacts.
Microsoft, which is a partner of OpenAI, did not get much notice about the removal and, as a result, suffered a drop in its share price.
The incident also sparked an investigation from regulatory agencies.
