Garfield as Altman in 'Artificial' — Christmas Day Release — SkimNews
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- Neon released the trailer for Luca Guadagnino's "Artificial," announcing a Christmas Day theatrical release after acquiring distribution rights in June 2026.
- Andrew Garfield stars as OpenAI founder Sam Altman, with the film dramatizing Altman's sudden firing in 2023 and his reinstatement five days later.
- The ensemble cast includes Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, Monica Barbaro as former CTO Mira Murati, "Anora" breakout Yura Borisov as former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, and Mark Rylance as Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton.
- Amazon MGM dropped the project earlier this year, shortly after signing a major partnership with OpenAI and investing $50 billion in the company, stating the film "would be better served if it were released by a different studio."
- Netflix, A24, and Focus also passed on the project before Neon signed on, with the film written by Simon Rich and co-produced by David Heyman, Jeffrey Clifford, and Jennifer Fox.
- Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O'Dowd, Cooper Koch, and Billie Lourd round out the supporting cast.
Why it matters: Amazon MGM dropped the film shortly after investing $50 billion in OpenAI, letting the studio sidestep distributing a dramatization of a company it now bankrolls. Neon's June pickup leaves just six months before the Christmas Day release, with the four prior studio passes highlighting industry hesitation around AI dramatizations tied to live corporate interests.
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