Andrew Garfield has spoken publicly for the first time about the turmoil surrounding 'Artificial,' Luca Guadagnino's film about OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman.

At the New York premiere of his film 'The Magic Faraway Tree,' Garfield gave his comments exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter, addressing a project that has had one of the more unusual paths to the screen in recent memory. He plays Altman in the film, which Guadagnino directs and co-produces from a screenplay by Simon Rich (The Hollywood Reporter).

The film's journey has been anything but straightforward. Amazon MGM Studios dropped 'Artificial' in summer 2025, just months after Amazon entered into a $50 billion investment with OpenAI. An Amazon spokesperson told THR in June 2025 that they believed the film "would be better served if released by a different studio" (The Hollywood Reporter). At the time, Variety reported the film was "nearly finished" (Variety).

Finding that new home proved difficult. Warner Bros., Netflix, and Focus Features all passed on the film before Neon closed its distribution deal, which Variety reported on 30 June 2026 (Variety). Sources told THR that studios were reluctant to pick up the film for reasons including political concerns (The Hollywood Reporter).

Despite the rocky road, Garfield struck a positive note. He told THR he is grateful to Amazon for making the film and helping it find a new home, and he is excited to release it with Neon, calling it "a daring studio doing daring films" (The Hollywood Reporter).

'Artificial' has been described as a Social Network-style biographical comedy-drama following Altman during the tumultuous 2023 period at OpenAI when he was fired and rehired in a matter of days (The Hollywood Reporter). The ensemble cast is deep: Yura Borisov plays Ilya Sutskever, Monica Barbaro plays Mira Murati, and Ike Barinholtz takes on Elon Musk. Mark Rylance, Chris O'Dowd, Jason Schwartzman, and Cooper Hoffman round out the cast (The Hollywood Reporter; The Hollywood Reporter).

The film was the third collaboration between Guadagnino and Amazon MGM Studios before the studio let it go (The Hollywood Reporter). It is not expected to play the traditional autumn festival circuit — the Venice–Telluride–Toronto corridor where awards contenders typically launch, according to Deadline (Deadline).

A new release date has not yet been set, according to the THR report.

What makes the film's odyssey stand out is the collision of forces at play: a corporate investment relationship worth tens of billions, a story about one of the most polarising figures in technology, and a finished film that several major distributors were unwilling to touch. Neon, a studio known for taking on projects other outfits avoid — it released Longlegs and Anora — now carries a film with a bankable lead, an acclaimed director, and a cast full of recognisable names. Whether audiences turn out for a Silicon Valley boardroom drama remains the open question, and the release date will tell us when they get the chance.