Amazon was so keen to divest itself from Artificial, Luca Guadagnino\u2019s film about OpenAI that its deal with Neon reportedly included a no money guarantee.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an interesting detail from the curious situation surrounding Luca Guadagnino\u2019s latest film, Artificial. Starring Andrew Garfield, it\u2019s about the antics of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and a brief period in 2023 where he was fired by his own company.<\/p>\n
Amazon previously bankrolled the movie for a reported sum of around $40m to $50m. It was shot and in post-production, and was reading for a debut at some prestigious film festivals later this year. Then Amazon made the abrupt decision to dump the film, writing in a statement that it thought Guadagnino\u2019s tech drama might be \u201cbetter served\u201d at another company. <\/p>\n
Indie production and distribution company Neon picked up Artificial’s rights a matter of weeks later, following brief sniffs of interest from Mubi. <\/p>\n
According to sources at Page Six<\/a>, however, Neon may have got a bit of a bargain here. It\u2019s said that Neon agreed to take on Artificial and give it a release, but with a \u201cno money guarantee\u201d written into its contract. <\/p>\n As explained by Media Services<\/a>, a minimum guarantee is an advance payment from a distributor to a filmmaker or creator, which the distributor then makes back from a cut of the resulting work\u2019s profits. <\/p>\n In other words, Neon has essentially paid nothing up front for Guadagnino\u2019s film, assuming the report\u2019s accurate. It\u2019s currently unknown whether Neon and Amazon have some other deal in place where they\u2019ll each share in the film\u2019s profits, assuming it makes any, or whether Amazon has divested itself from the project entirely.<\/p>\n There has been widespread speculation that Amazon has decided to distance itself from Artificial following its multi-billion dollar deal with OpenAI. A film that paints Sam Altman in a less-than-flattering light (which Artificial is said to do) could certainly make things awkward for Amazon.<\/p>\n Other reports, such as this one on Vulture<\/a>, suggest that there were problems behind the scenes on Artificial and that the film turned out to be more satirical and dark than Amazon was expecting \u2013 the implication being that the corporation simply decided it was more trouble than it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n Page Six, meanwhile, argues that there\u2019s a certain level of nervousness at major studios when it comes to criticising big tech. Aaron Sorkin may have a Social Network sequel on the way<\/a>, but there\u2019s a certain amount of uncertainty surrounding Darren Aronofsky\u2019s proposed Elon Musk movie, set up at A24, and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon\u2019s Gawker Killer, about Peter Thiel\u2019s hand in destroying a popular entertainment gossip website. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the same skittishness you saw when China was a hot market for US films and every studio bent over backwards to avoid offending and slavishly catered to Chinese sensibilities,\u201d an agent told Page Six. \u201cFilm executives keep their jobs by maximizing profits, not by being cultural provocateurs.\u201d<\/p>\n