Neon released the first trailer for the OpenAI biopic Artificial on Sept. 8, reviving a project that Amazon MGM Studios had abandoned after filming was completed. Neon has also said it intends to position the film for the Oscars.
The teaser opens with Andrew Garfield, playing Sam Altman, walking alone through the OpenAI campus before pushing through a heavy iron door and entering an underground vault. A voice says, 「We opened Pandora’s box together. The future is inevitable.」 The trailer then delivers a sharper line: 「Nations will fall, industries will collapse, and we will be the ones leading people into a new world.」
The short teaser ends with a direct confrontation between Altman and Ilya Sutskever, the former OpenAI chief scientist who has since left the company.
A 20-year story centered on OpenAI’s internal rupture
Artificial spans two decades. Its timeline begins in 2003 with Soviet-born computer scientist Ilya Sutskever studying artificial neural networks under Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto, a period the film frames as part of the technical groundwork that would later feed into OpenAI.
The middle portion follows Sutskever’s meeting with a young entrepreneur, Sam Altman, and their path toward co-founding OpenAI. The dramatic peak comes with the November 2023 boardroom crisis that stunned the tech industry: Altman was abruptly fired by OpenAI’s board, then returned to power five days later after employee pressure and internal negotiations.
The New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center has described the movie as 「a drama of tremendous moral urgency,」 saying it takes viewers through 20 years of machine-learning research and 「technocratic recklessness」 while confronting the current AI crisis and the increasingly blurred boundary between humans and machines.
The film is positioned as a biographical drama. Some foreign media outlets have also classified it as a biographical comedy-drama with black comedy elements.
Director, writer, producers, and production details
The film is directed by Luca Guadagnino, known for Call Me by Your Name and Challengers. The screenplay was written by Simon Rich, a former Saturday Night Live writer.
The producing team includes David Heyman, Jeffrey Clifford, and Jennifer Fox, representing Heyday Films, JF Films, and Frenesy Film Company.
Artificial has a runtime of 140 minutes and a production budget of about $40 million. It was co-produced by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy.
Cast lineup
- Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman
- Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever
- Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati
- Cooper Hoffman as OpenAI president Greg Brockman
- Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk
- Mark Rylance as Geoffrey Hinton
Additional cast members include Jason Schwartzman, Chris O’Dowd, Zosia Mamet, Billie Lourd, and Cooper Koch.
In the film, Borisov plays Sutskever as the key figure behind Altman’s removal. Mark Rylance plays Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton.
Amazon MGM walked away after filming, Neon took global rights
The production history has been almost as dramatic as the story on screen. Amazon MGM Studios launched development in June 2025 and fully financed the project. Filming began on July 30 that year in Dolores Park in San Francisco and in Turin, Italy, and wrapped in October.
In June 2026, several months after Amazon announced a $50 billion investment partnership with OpenAI, Amazon MGM abruptly dropped the film after it had already been completed. The studio’s public explanation was that the movie 「would be better released by another distributor.」
According to Variety, speculation centered on the film’s reportedly unfriendly portrayal of Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Puck reported that the script at one point referred to Musk as a 「dictator.」
After Netflix, A24, Focus Features, and Warner Bros. all passed, Neon acquired global rights in late June 2026 on a no-minimum-guarantee basis. Neon, the distributor behind Parasite and Anora, has openly said it wants to make an Oscar run with the film.
Mixed test-screening reactions
Reports on early screenings have not lined up. Some said test scores were weak and described the film as 「dull」 and 「overlong.」 Others said audience reactions at screenings were positive. A clearer verdict will likely wait until the premiere.
Garfield says playing Altman was intimidating
Andrew Garfield said he felt significant pressure taking on the role of Altman. 「I was nervous. I was really scared.」 He said he was portraying 「one of the most powerful people on the planet, or at least an interpretation of that person.」
Garfield also said he has never met Altman in person: 「I’ve never met Sam Altman. I don’t know what the inside of his soul looks like. I can only interpret what I understand, what I’ve seen, what I’ve read, and what my imagination and the script have given me.」
He added that he hoped the film would leave room for human ambiguity: 「I hope we haven’t demonized or lionized anyone.」
Release schedule
- Oct. 5, 2026: World premiere at the New York Film Festival
- Oct. 11, 2026: Gala screening at the BFI London Film Festival
- Dec. 25, 2026: Limited North American theatrical release
- January 2027: Wider release