The first teaser for Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has arrived, offering the first look at Andrew Garfield’s transformation into the technology executive. The dark footage presents Altman as a powerful and unsettling figure while hinting at the film’s focus on artificial intelligence, corporate power and the future of humanity. The film is scheduled to premiere at the New York Film Festival in October before opening in U.S. theaters on December 25, 2026.
The project has already attracted considerable attention because of its real-world subject and unusual journey to theaters. Originally backed by Amazon MGM Studios, Artificial was dropped by the studio in June before Neon acquired the movie and added it to its awards-season lineup.
Andrew Garfield’s Sam Altman Warns of a Dangerous AI Future
The teaser immediately establishes a sinister tone. Garfield’s Altman walks through a luxurious mansion before entering a basement filled with machine guns as electronic music builds around him.
“The future’s inevitable,”
Garfield’s version of Altman says in the footage.
“Countries will fall. Industries are gonna collapse. And we get to be the ones to shepherd people into this new world.”
The film focuses on the extraordinary events surrounding Altman’s removal as OpenAI CEO in 2023 and his eventual return to the company. That period involved an internal struggle over OpenAI’s leadership and the direction of its rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology.
Garfield has previously discussed taking on the controversial real-life figure. Speaking with Esquire, he said he had never met Altman personally, but suggested that someone carrying responsibility for technology capable of causing major consequences would need
“a certain ability to dissociate.”
Guadagnino, whose previous films include Call Me by Your Name and Challengers, directs the project from a screenplay by Simon Rich. The cast also includes Yura Borisov as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Cooper Hoffman, Monica Barbaro, Jason Schwartzman, Chris O’Dowd, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Koch and Billie Lourd in supporting roles.
Why Amazon Dropped Artificial
The movie’s path to release became almost as interesting as its subject. Amazon MGM dropped the film after announcing a major partnership with OpenAI, including plans for substantial investment in the artificial intelligence company. Amazon said at the time that it believed Artificial would be better served by another distributor and worked with the filmmakers to find a new home.
Neon subsequently acquired the film on June 30 and positioned it as part of its awards-season slate. The distributor has previously released acclaimed films including Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall and Anora, making its involvement particularly notable for Guadagnino’s controversial tech drama.
Cooper Hoffman also addressed the studio switch in an interview with Variety, saying he was “shocked” Amazon had initially picked up the film. He added that Amazon dropping it eventually made sense to him, while expressing happiness that Neon had acquired the project.
With its first teaser now public, Artificial is positioned as one of the more unconventional technology dramas of 2026, bringing a fictionalized version of one of the most consequential episodes in OpenAI’s history to the big screen.
