Amazon’s Boss Explains Why the Sam Altman Movie Got Axed, but Dodges the Big Question

Adario Strange
Nov. 6, 2026

🎬 A Revealing Autopsy on Amazon’s AI Movie Murder

1. The Hollywood and politics conspiracy theorists went into a frenzy when it was revealed that Amazon MGM Studios was dropping its biopic about Sam Altman and OpenAI called Artificial, following a $38 billion AI deal between OpenAI and Amazon. Now we have more clarity on exactly what happened. And, depending on who you believe, it may increase or decrease your skepticism around Amazon’s motives regarding the decision.

The film was pitched to Amazon MGM Studios in 2024 by screenwriter Simon Rich(Saturday Night Live), and quickly went into development. Around June 2025, director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) was tapped as the director for the film. But then came the Amazon cloud services deal with OpenAI, roughly five months later. Then, in February of 2026, Amazon announced a $50 billion investment in OpenAI, adding to the pressure on the film’s development. Just four months later, in June, Amazon announced that it was no longer releasing the nearly completed film, sending its creators scrambling for a new distributor. However, it only took a few weeks for Artificial to find a new home at Neon.

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The odd circumstances around the film’s abrupt cancellation by an OpenAI partner raised suspicions throughout Hollywood that Altman may have quietly used his business relationship with Amazon to get the movie killed.

Earlier this week, Amazon’s studio chief Mike Hopkins tried to explain the decision during an interview at the WSJ Tech conference. “The actual film, when we saw it, just didn’t quite match our expectations of what it was going to be when we green lit it. A lot of companies might not have released it at all,” said Hopkins. “We looked at it hard and said, ‘Look, I think this is something that somebody else would do a better job at marketing it, bringing it to market.’ And so we found Neon to help bring it to life, and they’ll release it here in the next few weeks. But that’s the main reason there. I don’t think we have an issue there at all. And we’re going to be happy if that movie does really well.”

But, aside from story development and performances, did the film’s departure from Amazon have anything to do with business? To that open question, Hopkins was somewhat elusive. “I think the story that the actual movie didn’t match sort of the ethos of what we thought we were baking,” he said when pressed on the unusual cancellation. “I made the decision. No [Amazon founder Jeff Bezos didn’t weigh in].”

Is the Movie Dead Anyway? The problem with the interview is that at the crucial moment of truth, The Wall Street Journal missed the mark and asked about Bezos instead of Altman. That interrogatory slip-up allowed Hopkins to sidestep the primary question everyone has been whispering for months: Did Altman ask for the film to be quashed? That said, it’s doubtful either Hopkins or Altman would have answered truthfully if questioned directly on the matter. But it would be nice to have the denial on the record, just in case we’re treated to revealing documentary evidence in the future.

And while Artificial is still on track to be released on Dec. 25, the shift from a studio behemoth like Amazon MGM to a smaller (albeit very successful) distributor like Neon will likely hinder the film’s reach. Neon’s most widely praised film, Parasite, was limited to a few hundred theaters during its initial release, and only reached 2,000 theaters after its Oscar win in February 2020, roughly four months after its U.S. premiere. Contrast that with Amazon MGM’s release of Project Hail Mary, which debuted in 4,000 theaters in its first week.

So, effectively, Artificial has been successfully hidden from the mainstream, despite the film being led by two-time Academy Award nominee Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, tick, tick… BOOM!). And for those with short cinematic memories, it should be noted that Garfield also starred in the multi-Oscar-winning The Social Network, as Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Artificial will debut in the same month as super franchises Dune: Part Three (Dec. 18), Avengers: Doomsday (Dec. 18), The Angry Birds Movie 3 (Dec. 23), and Jumanji: Open World (Dec. 25!). Barring a miracle, releasing Artificial on Dec. 25 is basically a box office death sentence for the film. Sam Altman and Big Tech win again?

🎭 Howard Predicts the End of Actors via AI

2. “I believe what’s taking place with AI, it’s part of the future…As far as acting goes, the jobs are gone. I think we’re just about at the end of an era. It’s like the end of silent films and now something new is going to happen, like the end of radio. It’s just a necessary transition. It’s not a sad thing, even though we may lose a lot of great talent. But you saw what happened with Ben Affleck just selling his [AI] company for [$587 million]. That was an AI-driven company that was made because they knew that change was around the corner. So you have to embrace it and you can’t mourn it so much. You know, it was a wonderful era and I hope that it’s still supported and you can support independent films, but I think the big studios, all of that is going towards the AI in the future. You can’t compete with inevitability.”
—Terrence Howard, actor, Iron Man, Hustle & Flow, Empire
*Source: TMZ

👽 Sci-Fi Beams Another Magazine Back Into Print

3. We officially have a trend on our hands. Starlog, the science-fiction magazine fans have loved since the 1970s, is returning to print in 2026. Even better, instead of being shepherded by unknown hands with unclear sci-fi credentials, the magazine is being led by Annalee Newitz, the former longtime editor of science-fiction news site io9(under the Gizmodo umbrella), and a published science-fiction author.

The magazine stopped circulating back in 2009, falling victim to the fate of many other print magazines struggling with the onslaught of internet alternatives and the tougher advertising market. The revived version of Starlog will sell for $19.99 for one 100-page issue that will ship on Nov. 13. Welcome back to the future…available in print!

🧟‍♂️ Black Zombie AI Apocalypse Stalled?

4. Actors Nate Parker (The Great Debaters) and David Oyelowo (Selma) have teamed up to launch an online video platform called Mansa that is now distributing an AI-generated horror series. The zombie series is called They Left Us to Die and spans 30 episodes, each just a few minutes long. Designed to be watched via the Mansa app or on TikTok, the trailer for the series uses fully AI-generated actors and environments.

What it means: There hasn’t been much chatter on social media about the series, but the little that I have seen has mostly been negative, particularly with regard to the use of AI to stand in for human actors. Mounting layoffs across Hollywood and a dearth of roles for black actors (most of the characters in the AI series are black) haven’t fostered an environment in which this kind of low-budget AI project is likely to receive immediate grassroots support. Another issue that may be hindering the project is the backlash against Oyelowo’s comments months ago regarding black Americans, the major part of the audience the zombie series seemed designed to invite.

Although it currently seems likely that film and TV studios will begin pushing AI-generated characters, when it comes to bootstrapped indie film productions targeting the U.S. black community, productions that marry human artistry and craft that are enhanced but not replaced by AI may receive a warmer welcome. ✍︎