NEWSAmazon MGM Pulls Plug on Andrew Garfield’s Sam Altman Role in 'Artificial' Ahead of Release
Amazon MGM drops Andrew Garfield starrer 'Artificial' just before its release.
June 19 2026, Published 1:19 p.m. ET
Amazon MGM Studios has officially dropped Artificial, the Andrew Garfield-led film in which the actor portrays OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. The movie Luca Guadagnino was directing was nearly finished, per Variety.
Artificial was written by Saturday Night Live alum Simon Rich and was supposed to follow the brief period in 2023 when Altman was fired from the company before being rehired.
This move reportedly resulted from Amazon and OpenAI entering into a partnership in February to broaden OpenAI's use of Amazon Web Services and develop custom AI models.
Amazon invested a massive $50 billion into the partnership.
Andrew Garfield was cast as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 'Artificial.'
Per the outlet, Hollywood big names like Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, and Ike Barinholtz were also included in the cast as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, and Elon Musk, respectively.
Cooper Koch, Cooper Hoffman, Billie Lourd, Jason Schwartzman, Chris O'Dowd, Zosia Mamet, Mark Rylance, and Angus Imrie also feature in the star-studded cast.
Amazon Claims They Will Help 'Artificial' Find 'New Home'
Amazon representatives said they will help 'Artificial' find another studio.
After the news dropped, a representative for Amazon stated that they admire Guadagnino and hope to continue their "longstanding relationship."
"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," the spokesperson said.
They also noted that they will help the filmmaking crew to find a new studio for the movie.
"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," the Amazon representative concluded.
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'Artificial' Already Had Test Screenings Before Being Dropped by Amazon
Andrew Garfield starrer 'Artificial' already held test screenings before Amazon dropped it.
Variety reported that before Amazon MGM Studios decided to drop Artificial, the movie had already held a few test screenings. All of which gained an overwhelmingly positive response from the audience.
Hence, the movie being dropped by the very studio that initiated its development is causing a ruckus in the film industry.
Especially since Amazon reportedly had been involved in overseeing all the early versions of the script before Guadagnino was even brought in to helm the movie.
Andrew Garfield's 'Artificial' has reportedly started being shopped to other studios.
An insider who had seen Artificial during one of its test screenings told the outlet that Altman and Musk were portrayed in the movie in a particularly negative and unsympathetic light.
According to the source, those are two characters in the movie that audiences would "like the least." Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have publicly appeared together at industry events. In fact, Altman was present at Bezos' extravagant wedding in Italy last year. Their relationship could have been a factor in Amazon MGM Studios dropping Artificial at the 11th hour.
Variety also reported that the movie has already been shopped to other studios, and a screening was held on Thursday, June 18, to help in the process.
