For the time being, there is still plenty of reason to believe that we will see Luca Guadagnino’s new film Artificial will be shown in the Netherlands in a while, but if that happens it will be in any case not via Prime Video. Amazon MGM was supposed to take care of the distribution of the newcomer, but pulled the plug on its cooperation at a late stage.
Garfield
Artificial tells about a turbulent period within the OpenAI company, which fired its CEO and co-founder Sam Altman in 2023 only to hire him back within a few days. The film was announced last year and had Andrew Garfield (as Altman) on board as the lead actor, supplemented by Mark Rylance, Monica Barbaro (among others).A Complete Unknown (2024)) in Jason Schwartzman. Saturday Night Livehusband Simon Rich signed the script.
Still ‘After the Hunt’ via TMDb
Advanced
The recordings of Artificial were completed last autumn, so it is remarkable that cooperation with the intended distributor is only now being stopped. Amazon MGM and Guadagnino have also been working together for some time: Challengers (2024) in After the Hunt (2025) both received their primary streaming release via Prime Video, while MGM Challengers also co-produced.
Other home
Deadline received a statement from the company explaining the parting of the ways:
We have great respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino (…) and hope to continue our long-term collaboration. We just think that Artificial will be better at another studio and work with the creators to find one
Amazon MGM
Partnership
The ‘why’ of the remarkable distribution stop must be estimated in the partnership between sister company Amazon and OpenAI. Just this year, Amazon announced it would invest $50 billion in OpenAI, and frontman Jeff Bezos is one of the biggest supporters of the development of AI technology.
Beeld: Still ‘Call Me By Your Name’ via TMDb
