NEON, the award-winning studio behind some of the most daring and celebrated films of the last nine years, has announced it has acquired, from Amazon MGM Studios,
world-wide rights to Artificial, the highly anticipated film from Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Luca Guadagnino. The film chronicles the incredibly consequential days leading up to the sudden firing and reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI, as the fate of who gets to control the technology at the center of an AI arms race hangs in the balance. The acquisition underscores NEONs commitment to partnering with visionary filmmakers, and bringing ambitious cinema to audiences around the world. Artificial will compete in this year’s Oscar race.

Anchored by a powerhouse ensemble, the film stars Oscar® nominees, Andrew Garlfied as Sam Altman, Yura Borisov (Anora) as Ilya Sutskever, Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) as Mira Murati, and Oscar® winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) as Nobel Prize Winner Geoffrey Hinton. The cast is rounded out by Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Cooper Koch and Billie Lourd.

The script, penned by SNL alum Simon Rich, is produced by Rich and Guadagnino, alongside Heyday Films’ David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford, and Jennifer Fox. Shot in San Francisco and Italy, the film was edited by longtime Guadagnino collaborator Marco Costa, with cinematography by Malik Hassan Sayeed, production design by Stefano Baisi, costumes by JW, and an original score and original songs by Damon Albarn.

As one of contemporary cinema’s defining auteurs, the Academy Award® nominated director reteams with Garfield, who starred in Guadagnino’s previous film, After the Hunt. Artificial joins an acclaimed body of work that includes the Oscar® nominated, Call Me By Your Name, and Challengers, as well as I Am Love, Suspiria, Bones and All, and Queer.
The deal was negotiated by Alison Cohen for NEON, with CAA Media Finance and Amazon MGM Studios.