It was only a matter of time. OpenAI, the company that’s put the fear of God into Hollywood thanks to its scarily powerful AI tools, is itself going to be the subject of a big screen drama soon.
The tech company that became a household name thanks to ChatGPT, sparked global debates about the future of intelligence, and somehow fired and re-hired its CEO in under a week back in late 2023 is the focus of a movie deal that’s coming together at Amazon MGM (though nothing is finalized yet as of this writing). And it’s already got a buzzy director attached — Luca Guadagnino, per The Hollywood Reporter, a director whose credits include Challengers and Call Me By Your Name.
But let’s get to the important part: The casting.
If you’re going to tell the story of OpenAI’s wild 2023 power struggle, you’ve got to get the characters right. And sure, there are already a few A-listers reportedly circling the project, but let’s be honest. If you ask me, the correct picks are right in front of us, starting with who should play OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
OpenAI Sam Altman (Nicholas Braun)
If you’re telling the story of OpenAI, Altman is obviously the central figure. He’s an ambitious, soft-spoken visionary who somehow comes across as both totally in control, to the point that it’s a little off-putting to some people, as well as being someone who’s unnerved by the leviathan he helped create.
I’ve always thought that OpenAI’s CEO gives off a bit of Cousin Greg energy, so for that reason this first casting choice is a no-brainer to me; it’s got to go to Succession’s Nicholas Braun. He’s tall, awkward, and can sell the kind of behind-the-eyes panic that seems to live inside anyone tasked with “aligning artificial general intelligence to human values.” Plus, I think we can all agree that, to paraphase Tom Wambsgans, you’ve got to break a few Gregs to make an Altman.
OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever (Will Arnett)
Moving right along, there’s no reason on Earth why Will Arnett shouldn’t play OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Okay, okay, if I’m honest … I’m really just imagining Arnett’s signature deadpan delivery that could be put to great effect dropping a line about doomsday probabilities or recursive self-improvement. You just know that, at some point, he would mutter something with the same existential weight as his iconic Arrested Development lament (“I’ve made a huge mistake”).
OpenAI president Greg Brockman (Matt Damon)
We’ve got two more key roles to cast. As for OpenAI’s president, I would cast Matt Damon thanks to his ability to shift between boyish enthusiasm and world-weary intensity — the perfect combo for the guy who quit OpenAI in protest and helped lead the charge to bring Altman back. Damon can sell both the idealism of building the future and the disillusionment of watching it nearly fall apart.
It’s Good Will Hunting meets The Martian meets Silicon Valley.
OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati (Nasim Pedrad)
As for Mira Murati — the interim CEO who stepped in during the whirlwind span of just a few days between Altman’s ouster and rehiring — you need someone with poise, intelligence, and an air of mystery. SNL vet Nasim Pedrad has the goods on that front, not to mention the fact that she bears an uncanny resemblance to Murati. I suspect that Pedrad could easily nail the ex-OpenAI CTO’s calm-under-fire demeanor, while also hinting at the subtleties beneath.
The OpenAI film being planned, with the working title of Artificial, is speeding through development with a top-tier creative team and plans to shoot as soon as this summer. If that timeline holds, we could soon be watching dramatizations of Slack messages, boardroom knife fights, and very awkward all-hands meetings set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s tech scene sooner rather than later.
We don’t know yet who’ll land the actual roles, but I do know this: if Braun doesn’t walk onto the screen wearing a Patagonia vest and blinking nervously at a wall of server racks, it will be a crying shame. And you can’t convince me otherwise.
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