What happened in this Culture story?

The first teaser for Alex Gibney's nearly four-hour Elon Musk documentary debuted ahead of its out-of-competition world premiere at the 83rd Venice Film Festival on Sept. 8. The 48-second clip pairs spacecraft imagery with voiceover ranging from "greatest living inventor" to "fascist," ending with "Elon is a nuke."

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

**Alex Gibney's documentary "Musk"** released its first 48-second teaser, set for world premiere out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 8 before continuing to the Toronto International Film Festival.

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

The teaser pairs spacecraft and astronautical montages with voiceover commentary calling Musk "possibly the greatest living inventor" and "the real-life Iron Man" before shifting to "manifestly cruel and selfish" and "a fascist," concluding "Elon is a nuke."

📎 SkimNews has covered Elon Musk 42+ times · see the file →

Gibney's 'Musk' Documentary Teaser Debuts Before Venice Premiere — SkimNews

By Variety · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-09-07

Get the Culture newsletter

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

Alex Gibney's documentary "Musk" released its first 48-second teaser, set for world premiere out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 8 before continuing to the Toronto International Film Festival.
The teaser pairs spacecraft and astronautical montages with voiceover commentary calling Musk "possibly the greatest living inventor" and "the real-life Iron Man" before shifting to "manifestly cruel and selfish" and "a fascist," concluding "Elon is a nuke."
Elon Musk predicted on X/Twitter in March 2023 that Gibney's project would be "a hit piece" after Gibney revealed he was "many months" into production, prompting Gibney to reply on the same platform: "how would you know?"
The film has a nearly four-hour running time and features an original song from David Byrne of Talking Heads titled "Let Me Sell You a Dream."
Jigsaw Productions, Double Agent, Closer Media, and Anonymous Content back the film, with Ronan Farrow and Lawrence Wright rounding out the producing team alongside Gibney.

Why it matters: A nearly four-hour runtime signals a comprehensive character study rather than a quick profile, and the deliberately polarized voiceover suggests Gibney is positioning "Musk" as a serious reckoning rather than a hagiography. The 2023 X feud — Musk calling it a "hit piece," Gibney firing back — primes a must-watch confrontation between filmmaker and subject at Venice.