Nov. 13, 2026
🎬 Casting the Inevitable Jensen Huang Nvidia Biopic
1. Despite his “tech rockstar” status, two weeks ago, the name Jensen Huang was known mostly to tech insiders, business journalists, and Wall Street analysts watching Nvidia’s stock. Today, after Huang’s affair with an accused Chinese spy (Alice Huang), and allegedly at least two Nvidia employees (including Kimberly Powell), he’s so well known that even sports newscasters, comedian podcasters, and gamer streamers are all weighing in with some sort of hot take on the sex life of a 63-year-old computer processor boss.
Predictably, the social media memes and conspiracy theories have been in overdrive. Ultimately, the Nvidia board of directors decided to fire Taiwan-born Huang on Thursday (framed as a resignation) and installed the company’s CFO, Colette Kress, as interim CEO as they conduct a search for a new leader. Huang’s fall from grace might be the most epic and rapid in business history, especially since he sat atop the AI industry as its kingmaker and is personally worth about $140 billion.
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And while the story is far from over (Huang will testify before Congress in the coming weeks), and Nvidia’s earnings report will drop next week, one thing is certain: Hollywood is taking notes. Nathan Fielder’s documentary You Can See Everything, about jailed Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, won the box office in recent weeks with $80 million worldwide (amazing for a doc), Alex Gibney’s Musk documentary is earning praise now that it has hit streaming, and there’s strong anticipation for December’s Artificial film, about the life of OpenAI’s Sam Altman. But Huang’s story, and the stakes involved, easily make for a far more compelling tale, even as it’s still unfolding.
And while no one is happy about the situation around Huang’s family, Nvidia employees and shareholders, or the national security implications for the U.S., none of that will stop screenwriters from getting to work. The Nvidia film could be the next major mainstream vehicle that efficiently unpacks this business tale through the lens of cinematic drama. With that in mind, let’s get ahead of the studios and think about who could deliver the best performances in each crucial role.
Tony Leung as Jensen Huang: Leung (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, In The Mood For Love, Infernal Affairs) has the gravitas, understated wit, and knowing gaze that, combined, could give a proper depiction of Huang’s reportedly complicated persona. All Leung is missing is a grey mane and a black leather jacket.
Annette Bening as Lori Huang: We haven’t heard much from Mrs. Huang, but by Jensen’s account, she’s similarly brilliant, formidable, and loyal. How or if she’ll publicly react to Jensen’s fall remains unknown. If anyone can portray the multi-faceted role, Bening (Dutton Ranch, Captain Marvel, American Beauty) has proven again and again that she has the ability to deliver on expressing what must be an incredibly difficult position for Jensen’s partner.
Gemma Chan as Alice Huang: If you’re looking for mystery framed by character intrigue and allure, Chan (Crazy Rich Asians, Humans, The Creator) is an easy pick. There are reports that not everyone is even sure Alice is a Chinese spy, but since she’s retreated to mainland China, the truth may never be revealed. Chan is the perfect vessel for that theatrical mission.
Jessica Chastain as Kimberly Powell: We don’t know much about Powell other than that she is also married, and her title at Nvidia is vice president of healthcare. Powell has yet to make a public statement on the affair allegations, and there are reports that Huang also had an affair with another Nvidia employee. Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, Scenes from a Marriage) would be a credible avatar channeling the interoffice drama that currently has Nvidia in a chokehold.
Sandra Oh as Dr. Lisa Su (CEO of AMD): Dr. Su’s name hasn’t come up in Huang’s story other than as the head of an Nvidia competitor. In the wake of Huang’s scandal, many on Wall Street have looked to AMD and its leader as the potential new AI industry leader. A good screenwriter would likely weave this industry rivalry somewhere into the story. Ideally, a Taiwanese actress would play this role, but Oh (Killing Eve, Grey’s Anatomy), who is Canadian and American of South Korean descent, would nevertheless bring a lot of depth to such a film. Also born in Taiwan, Dr. Su isn’t as flashy as Jensen Huang, but she is a brilliant New Yorker raised in Queens who enjoys boxing in her spare time. Every story needs a hero, and in this case, it could end up being Dr. Su. Sandra Oh’s humor, talent for giving life to dialogue, and onscreen poise would do justice to Dr. Su in a way that could highlight the tech titan’s complexity.
🎥 Christopher Nolan Opens Up About AI Struggles
2. “I was very pleased to see that the boilerplate at the end of The Odyssey contains, for the first time, a *message saying that this film cannot be ingested and used as [AI] training data…The [Directors] Guild has to do everything it possibly can. I co-chaired the AI committee for a few years, talking to filmmakers, talking to studios about things that could be done. For us, it’s a constant push towards litigation and legislation. It’s like how can we make sure that our work is not stolen and thinly disguised, repackaged, [and] sold back to us. And that fight’s never going away. It’ll be an ongoing thing.”
—Christopher Nolan, director, The Odyssey, Inception, The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer
*Source: Hollywood Insiders with Hawk Koch
*All rights in this work are reserved for purposes of laws in all jurisdictions pertaining to data mining or AI training, including but not limited to article 4(3) of directive (EU) 2019/790. This work may not be used to train AI.
🔈 Bill Simmons Ditches ChatGPT
3. Back in August, The Ringer podcast staffers Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins seemed blindsided while appearing on Sam Fragoso’s show after he told them that their boss, Bill Simmons, had taken OpenAI’s ChatGPT on as a sponsor. The two were already not thrilled that Simmons had started using ChatGPT to speculate as to how the late Roger Ebert might review a certain film. But finding out that ChatGPT was a new Ringer sponsor genuinely surprised them.
Months later, after much podcast insider and audience grousing about allowing AI to mimic a human movie critic, Simmons has relented and canceled the ChatGPT spots on his show. “Last spring, we thought we could integrate AI research for baked-in content segments for a couple of our shows the way some of our competitors were doing (and also leagues like the NFL were doing), I’m always going to try to be early instead of late on something,” Simmons toldBloomberg. “This time we learned almost immediately that those segments weren’t a fit for us, our audience just didn’t like them.”
Selling Humanity Over AI: As the advertising dollars for media have been pummeled in recent years by Google search and now AI chatbots, media orgs have been compelled to strike up sponsorship deals they might have otherwise turned their noses up at in the past. The best examples of this are the gambling and prediction market ads that have taken over most of the podcast space. Likewise, AI companies, flush with investor cash to spend, have been placing their ads in some of the most high-profile podcasts to draw users. That includes Joe Rogan, who, since his sponsorship deal with AI chatbot company Perplexity, has taken to interrupting nearly every guest conversation with, “Let’s ask Perplexity if that’s true!” Never mind hallucinations, Rogan appears to be all in on Perplexity as his arbiter of truth.
So when Simmons, who has a reputation in sports and film media for calling out bullshit (as long as it doesn’t involve speaking truth to the Boston Celtics), began using AI to simulate a human movie reviewer, some felt it was a betrayal of The Ringer’s primary value proposition: human-crafted opinions on popular culture. Simmons may have backed off his ChatGPT on-air use and sponsorship, but this episode in The Ringer’s history is a clear signal of how influential AI has become. AI has inserted its algorithmic voice not just into Wall Street analyst reports, but into the spaces we rely on to filter through the AI slop online and give us insights and opinions from fellow humans. Meanwhile, Rogan, who is free of any journalistic pedigree that might rein him in, will apparently continue to back up his Egyptian pyramid theories and alien autopsy hot takes with anything AI serves him. ✍︎
🤖 Ivy League Students vs. ChatGPT
4. “[Princeton owes] us a rigorous education dedicated above all to developing our ability to think independently. AI has transformed the mechanics of learning, subverting the fundamental values of our education: We are not convinced that a sweeping ChatGPT pilot will suit the distinct learning methods across disciplines. The research on how AI affects learning is still an emerging field, but there is some evidence to suggest that in a university setting, the use of chatbots can be detrimental to students.”
—Princeton students, response to Princeton providing ChatGPT to all students
*Source: The Daily Princetonian Editorial Board
MAN AND ROBOTS is a weekly column from MARS Magazine on AI, Hollywood, and the future of work. All editorial text is written by humans.
Cover image: A modified image of Nvidia’s official bio photo of former CEO Jensen Huang via Nvidia
