What happened in this Culture story?

Director Alex Gibney revealed at TIFF that Elon Musk has ignored all outreach since attacking his new four-hour documentary "Musk," as the director raised alarms about the film's fate amid Warner Bros. Discovery's pending Paramount merger.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**Alex Gibney** said at TIFF on Sept. 13 that Elon Musk has not contacted him despite publicly attacking and legally threatening his four-hour documentary "Musk," which premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

Gibney said he "reached out immediately" to Musk after the attacks but "he clearly wasn't interested in talking," and noted his team made "so many formal outreaches" during production, receiving no response except Musk's remarks on X.

📎 SkimNews has covered Elon Musk 50+ times · see the file →

Gibney Says Musk Never Responded After Defamation Threat — SkimNews

By Rolling Stone · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-09-14

Get the Culture newsletter

Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.

Alex Gibney said at TIFF on Sept. 13 that Elon Musk has not contacted him despite publicly attacking and legally threatening his four-hour documentary "Musk," which premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
Gibney said he "reached out immediately" to Musk after the attacks but "he clearly wasn't interested in talking," and noted his team made "so many formal outreaches" during production, receiving no response except Musk's remarks on X.
Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro sent Jigsaw Productions a pre-release letter threatening defamation action, targeting an exchange between Gibney and Ashley St. Clair — a former MAGA influencer with whom Musk shares a child — about pre-2024 election texts Musk sent her.
The disputed texts include Musk telling St. Clair he had "over 10 thousand lasers in space," which Spiro argued falsely implied Starlink satellites were used to manipulate the 2024 vote; Jigsaw fired back that the First Amendment protects their "fact-based examinations of powerful public figures."
Gibney warned the film could face censorship as HBO Max's parent Warner Bros. Discovery pursues a merger with Paramount, run by David Ellison, whose father Larry Ellison is a Musk friend and Twitter investor.
The Justice Department approved Paramount's WBD bid earlier this summer, though it faces an antitrust challenge from several states; Gibney called "the consolidation of the media... deeply concerning."
The documentary is set for theatrical release in October and is expected to stream on HBO Max later this year or in early 2027.

Why it matters: Gibney's defamation standoff with Musk — centered on texts about "lasers in space" and the 2024 election — shows how billionaire legal threats can chill investigative filmmaking. His separate alarm over the WBD-Paramount merger, which would place Musk ally Larry Ellison's son in charge of distribution, raises the censorship stakes at a moment when the documentary hasn't yet reached streaming.