Gibney's 'Musk' heads to cinemas on 9 October under threat of lawsuit
Alex Gibney's documentary 'Musk' opens in New York and Los Angeles on 9 October with a legal threat hanging over it.
Distributor Bleecker Street will start the film in those two cities before expanding nationwide, Gibney said in an interview at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, published on 1 October Deadline. It is a platform release, the standard cinema rollout that begins small and widens if demand holds.
The dispute centres on the 2024 presidential election. Musk, through attorney Alex Spiro, raised the prospect of a defamation suit, a legal claim that a false statement harmed reputation, over that section of the film Deadline.
In the film, Ashley St. Clair says Musk told her before Election Day that he would "unleash an anomaly in the matrix" to ensure Donald Trump won Deadline. That account is presented as her recollection. It has not been established as fact.
Musk has attacked the film-maker directly. He called Gibney a "bitter old man" while threatening to sue over the documentary Deadline. Gibney's team answered that threat by referring to Musk as a "free speech absolutist" The Hollywood Reporter.
Gibney has also spoken bluntly about his subject. He said Musk's widespread, unchecked power is "extremely dangerous to world democracy" in interviews about the film Los Angeles Times. The line captures why the director pursued the portrait.
The craft is unusual. The film uses an AI-generated version of Musk that speaks words he has uttered over the years Reuters. Gibney said fear shadowed the making of the documentary Reuters.
'Musk' had its world premiere in Venice and its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival Deadline. Festivals often act as launch pads. They give a documentary press attention before it faces ticket buyers.
