Gibney's Four-Hour Musk Film Opens Oct. 9 After Long Path to Release
Director Alex Gibney spent four years researching Elon Musk for Musk, a documentary running nearly four hours that is set to open in theaters Friday, Oct. 9, 2026.
The release plan calls for theaters first, then streaming on HBO a few months later, according to NPR. The plan was reported Oct. 7. Gibney told NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep he began the project interested in Musk's work and liking it. He said he owned a Tesla Powerwall, a home battery that stores energy, and Tesla solar panels at his home.
Gibney has built a career on films that examine corporate power. Those earlier films looked at energy company Enron and at Elizabeth Holmes, the executive behind blood-testing startup Theranos.
The path to distribution has shifted. Universal paid millions for rights outside North America, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The company had not yet committed to a rollout. The Hollywood Reporter described the film as looking at Musk's rise to power, controversies, and potential risks to democracy.
The film argues Musk is a confidence man who will deceive, gaslight and fabricate to get what he wants. An early review in Variety described the Musk shown in the film as a genuine if flawed technocratic visionary, a messianic opportunist, and something of a crackpot. Musk founded xAI, the artificial intelligence company behind the Grok AI assistant.
Musk has rejected the film as biased. In posts on X, he described it as a "hit piece." He has also threatened a defamation lawsuit, a legal case that centers on claims of false statements that cause harm.
Musk attorney Alex Spiro sent a letter to Gibney's company, Jigsaw Productions, that emerged in September. The letter focused on an exchange with Ashley St. Clair. St. Clair had a child with Musk.
At issue in part are text messages between Musk and St. Clair sent Oct. 6, 2024. NPR said it obtained and authenticated those messages. In them, Musk told St. Clair he was "feeling more optimistic" about Donald Trump winning because "tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix."
In the same exchange, Musk told St. Clair he planned on tapping "lasers" from space and said, "I have over 10 thousand lasers in space right now."
Gibney said fear hung over the making of the film, according to Reuters. He described Musk as "extremely" dangerous to democracy. He said he wants viewers of Musk to reclaim power from tech oligarchs, a term for very wealthy tech leaders with political influence.
The broader context here for Washington is legal as much as political. A defamation case tied to a theatrically released film built on authenticated documents would test sourcing, review standards and the line between opinion and false statement of fact. For elected officials and regulators, the film adds another public record on Musk's election-year communications and business conduct, including conduct around the 2024 campaign. For courts and the press, the outcome of any filing by Spiro will matter more than the rhetoric around it. The record so far is a completed film, a scheduled release and a threatened claim. The next step belongs to the litigants.
