Luca Guadagnino has added another project to his always-packed slate. IndieWire can confirm that Guadagnino is attached to direct “Artificial,” a comedic film set in the world of AI, for Amazon MGM.
While plot details and cast info have been kept under wraps, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline have reported that the film is set at OpenAI and follows the tumultuous period in 2023 in which founder Sam Altman was ousted before immediately returning to the company. Those outlets have also reported that Andrew Garfield and “Anora” star Yuri Borisov are circling roles in the project.
Whether “Artificial” ends up being a literal take on the Altman saga or a fictional project that takes inspiration from it, the lucrative world of AI startups should offer Guadagnino plenty of material to work with. As virtually every industry on the planet prepares to be disrupted by AI in some capacity, companies are racing to find the products that will place them ahead of their competitors, which has created a gold rush for entrepreneurs developing those products.
But no AI company has been subject to more scrutiny or palace intrigue than OpenAI. Founded as a nonprofit in 2015 by a team of tech executives including Altman and Elon Musk, it was originally intended as an open source company that shared all of its research and technology with the public. But as the company developed potentially lucrative properties like ChatGPT, it transitioned to a for profit endeavor in 2019, prompting some founders (including Musk) to leave over a disagreement about the company’s vision.
The transition created a highly complicated corporate structure in which the OpenAI board of directors controls a nonprofit foundation that controls the for-profit entity, in which Microsoft also owns a minority stake. That structure laid the foundation for Altman to be pushed out as CEO by the board in November 2023, only to be re-hired three days later after a massive employee mutiny that saw many OpenAI workers threaten to leave for equivalent positions at Microsoft.
In addition to “Artificial,” Guadagnino is currently attached to direct a reimagining of “American Psycho” for Lionsgate. And while his DC Comics film “Sgt. Rock” was recently placed on hold, his next film, the campus thriller “After the Hunt,” opens in October.
Reporting by Brian Welk.
