Neon Acquires Global Rights to Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial”
Neon has finalized a deal to acquire the worldwide rights to Artificial, the new film directed and co-produced by Luca Guadagnino. The project had previously been set up at Amazon MGM Studios, which subsequently decided to part with it, concluding that a different distribution partner would be the better fit for the film.
Budgeted at roughly $40 million and currently in the final stages of post-production, the film recounts the days that led to the removal and subsequent reinstatement of Sam Altman as head of OpenAI in 2023. The screenplay was written by Simon Rich, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer.
The cast is led by Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman and features Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, and Ike Barinholtz, among others. The film is produced by Rich and Guadagnino, along with David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford of Heyday Films and Jennifer Fox. Shot in San Francisco and Italy, it was edited by Marco Costa, a longtime collaborator of the director. The shoot encompassed not only San Francisco but also Italian locations such as Turin and Ivrea, with corporate landmarks , from the Nuvola Lavazza complex to the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper and several technology headquarters, standing in for the Bay Area’s big-tech environment. The combination of real Silicon Valley settings and contemporary Italian architecture promises a “global tech” aesthetic that mirrors the transnational nature of the AI industry and the capital flows sustaining it.
Neon has announced that the film will be released before the end of the year and will compete in the upcoming awards season. The distributor brings a well-established track record in the awards space, with honored titles such as “Parasite” and “Anora,” as well as having backed the last seven Palme d’Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival. Given the acquisition, the film could also find a place at the Venice Film Festival, where many of the director’s previous works have premiered.
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U.S. Box Office – July 4th Weekend 2026: "Minions & Monsters" Leads a Muted Independence DayRelated Posts
Neon has finalized a deal to acquire the worldwide rights to Artificial, the new film directed and co-produced by Luca Guadagnino. The project had previously been set up at Amazon MGM Studios, which subsequently decided to part with it, concluding that a different distribution partner would be the better fit for the film.
Budgeted at roughly $40 million and currently in the final stages of post-production, the film recounts the days that led to the removal and subsequent reinstatement of Sam Altman as head of OpenAI in 2023. The screenplay was written by Simon Rich, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer.
The cast is led by Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman and features Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, and Ike Barinholtz, among others. The film is produced by Rich and Guadagnino, along with David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford of Heyday Films and Jennifer Fox. Shot in San Francisco and Italy, it was edited by Marco Costa, a longtime collaborator of the director. The shoot encompassed not only San Francisco but also Italian locations such as Turin and Ivrea, with corporate landmarks , from the Nuvola Lavazza complex to the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper and several technology headquarters, standing in for the Bay Area’s big-tech environment. The combination of real Silicon Valley settings and contemporary Italian architecture promises a “global tech” aesthetic that mirrors the transnational nature of the AI industry and the capital flows sustaining it.
Neon has announced that the film will be released before the end of the year and will compete in the upcoming awards season. The distributor brings a well-established track record in the awards space, with honored titles such as “Parasite” and “Anora,” as well as having backed the last seven Palme d’Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival. Given the acquisition, the film could also find a place at the Venice Film Festival, where many of the director’s previous works have premiered.
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U.S. Box Office – July 4th Weekend 2026: "Minions & Monsters" Leads a Muted Independence Day
