How convincing will Andrew Garfield be as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman?
Movie-goers will be able to decide for themselves in 2026, when a movie about Altman’s dramatic five-day firing and re-hiring at OpenAI is set to come out.
The $40 million film, “Artificial,” is funded by Amazon. And, as Puck News reports after obtaining an early draft of the script, the movie could ruffle some feathers in the Big Tech world.
The movie will focus on OpenAI co-founder and former board member Ilya Sutskever’s reported role in trying to push Altman out, per Puck News. Few people end up looking good in the dramatized, Hollywood-ified version of the story, least of all Altman, according to the report — and it sounds like Elon Musk and Dario Amodei will also be portrayed at least briefly on screen.
So, who will be depicting the real-world tech execs in Hollywood’s retelling? A few key roles have already been cast, according to IMDB.
Here’s what we know so far about the cast list.
Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman
Getty Images
Andrew Garfield is slated to play Altman, and it’s not the actor’s first foray into the world of tech dramas. He starred in “The Social Network” as Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin. Garfield is also known as Spider-Man and recently starred in the teary drama “We Live in Time.”
Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever
Getty Images
Yura Borisov has been cast as Ilya Sutskever. The Russian actor snagged an Oscar nomination for his role in “Anora” as a surprisingly tender henchman.
Sutskever was crucial to OpenAI’s success during nearly a decade at the company. He was on the board in November of 2023 and reportedly voted to oust Altman, but later said he regretted his “participation in the board’s actions.” When Altman eventually returned, Sutskever’s role at the company moving forward was a big question mark — he was not as present in the San Francisco offices in the weeks following and hired his own lawyer, as BI previously reported.
Six months after the failed ousting of Altman, Sutskever left OpenAI altogether. He’s since started a research lab promoting “safe superintelligence.”
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Sutskever is pretty much the only person to come out of the Hollywood version of the story looking good, according to the script Puck News saw.
Monica Barbaro as Mira Murati
Getty Images
Monica Barbaro, who starred in the Oscar-nominated film “A Complete Unknown,” has been cast as Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former chief technology officer.
Murati stepped in to temporarily fill Altman’s shoes while he was on the outs, before returning to her job as CTO. She left OpenAI in September 2024 and has since founded Thinking Machines Lab, a secretive AI startup that is developing AI models focused on human and AI collaboration. The company has hired OpenAI alums.
What’s your favorite business movie?
Here at BI, our editors have their own go-tos.
Andy Kiersz likes “Trading Places” and “Margin Call,” while Jack Sommers is partial to “Steve Jobs.” For both Pete Gelling and Graham Flanagan (whose opinion might hold extra weight as chief video correspondent), “The Secret of My Success” is a winner (though Gelling likes “Dumb Money,” too).
Taylor Berman agrees that “Trading Places” is best, and Steven Tweedie opts for a modern classic, “The Social Network.”
But what about you?
Vote below on your favorite business movie!
