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Amazon drops Sam Altman biopic — and everyone wants to know why

2 weeks 1 day ago


Amazon has walked away from a nearly finished biopic about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, prompting questions about why a film centered on one of Silicon Valley's most powerful figures suddenly needs a new distributor.

The $40 million film "Artificial," which starred "Spider-Man" actor Andrew Garfield as Altman, was reportedly nearing completion when Amazon struck it from its 2027 release schedule. The project — which also stars "Mad TV" and "Eastbound and Down" alum Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk — is now being shopped to other studios.

'All I hope is that if he puts me into a gulag, it's one with all of my friends. That way we can have a party.'

Unlikable characters

According to Variety, the film performed well in multiple test screenings, with one viewer telling the outlet that Altman and Musk were the two characters audiences "liked the least."

Some observers have pointed to Amazon's deepening ties to OpenAI as the reason for the change of heart.

RELATED: It only took weeks for AI usage to break the corporate piggy bank

In February, OpenAI announced a major collaboration involving SoftBank, NVIDIA, and Amazon.

"Helping AI reach more people requires deep collaboration across the ecosystem," OpenAI said at the time.

'Utmost respect'

Amazon's role in the partnership includes helping Amazon Web Services customers build AI applications and agents using OpenAI technology. The collaboration powers the Stateful Runtime Environment for Agents in Amazon Bedrock, which the company says can be used for customer support, sales operations, IT automation, and financial workflows.

While some observers have connected Amazon's decision to those business ties, neither Amazon nor the filmmakers have suggested that was the reason for the split.

Instead, Amazon framed the move as a decision about the film itself.

"We have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker — not to mention a longstanding relationship that we hope to continue," an Amazon spokesman told Variety.

RELATED: Sam Altman described as 'sociopath' by board member in brutal insider report: 'He's unconstrained by truth'

Mondadori/Getty Images

Gulag guy

The company added: "We believe that 'Artificial' will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home."

Some online observers have also pointed to Altman's appearance at Jeff Bezos' wedding last year, though there is no public evidence linking that relationship to Amazon's decision.

Barinholtz appeared less interested than some actors in conducting firsthand research for the role. Asked by Variety in September 2025 whether he had considered meeting Musk, the actor replied, "I'm OK," adding that the Tesla CEO was "famous enough that you get it."

The 49-year-old later joked, "All I hope is that if he puts me into a gulag, it's one with all of my friends. That way we can have a party."

Garfield said he was initially reluctant to take the role after previously portraying Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in the 2010 film "The Social Network."

"I've been very, very gun-shy around other films that deal with the same world," Garfield told Vanity Fair in November 2025. "And yet I wanted to dive into the psyche of a guy who wins — because I played the guy who arguably doesn't win, because he's too touchy-feely."

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Andrew Chapados

Global Tech Rout Takes Nasdaq 580 Points Lower

2 weeks 1 day ago
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed at more than one-week lows Tuesday, dragged down by sharp losses in semiconductor stocks as investors scrutinized growing debt-funded AI spending and braced for a more hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve.

Liz Wheeler: Britain’s rape gang scandal could not have happened without help

2 weeks 1 day ago


The horrifying details from Britain’s grooming gang scandal have been revealed through the "Rape Gang Inquiry Report" — and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler finds it all almost impossible to comprehend.

“My mind has been spinning for hours because I can’t read the account of this sexual torture of young children,” Wheeler begins.

“What was done to these girls in Britain, these young white girls, 250,000 of them, is actually beyond the scope of human imagination,” she says.

“How did this happen?”

And Wheeler believes there's only one answer to that question.

“The scope of the crimes that were committed is so widespread and so extreme that the only explanation is that it was allowed to happen,” she says.


The girls were as young as 11 years old and were “systemically raped and trafficked by Muslim men in Britain.”

“We know this because of the ones who have been charged, 87% of these perpetrators who have been convicted were Muslim,” she explains.

“This is not a generalization. This is not a negative stereotype. This is not bigotry or Islamophobia or whatever the left is going to accuse us of engaging in for simply acknowledging what is happening here,” she continues.

According to the report, these men worked through “organized networks of perpetrators” who “built coordinated operations that transported victims between locations, supplied them with drugs and alcohol, recorded abuse for distribution and blackmail, and passed girls between multiple adult men.”

The report also explains that “police forces ignored repeated reports, criminalized victims instead of perpetrators, destroyed evidence, and allowed known rapists to walk free on bail.”

Social care services even placed children “in trafficking hubs,” “closed cases despite clear indicators of exploitation, and retaliated against whistleblowers.”

Meanwhile, the National Health Service recorded genital injuries, STIs in children as young as 13, pregnancies from rape, suicide attempts — but still discharged these children back to their abusers.

And when politicians were asked about the abuse, they did nothing but reverse the blame.

“The mayor, Sadiq Khan, London mayor ... when he was asked publicly about these allegations, said that it was fake, that they were false allegations. And he turned it around, and he blamed the victims and ... falsely accused them of being politically motivated,” Wheeler explains.

However, a Daily Express report revealed that Khan had access to documents from the police detailing the crimes.

“It’s almost beyond comprehension to understand how someone could see this happening and not turn their life upside down to try to stop it,” Wheeler says.

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BlazeTV Staff

DOJ Investigates NYC Coffee Chain Over Lawmaker Ban

2 weeks 1 day ago
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into a cafe in Brooklyn, New York, after the business publicly stated it would have refused service to a Jewish member of Congress because of his political views and support for Israel, a senior ...