A $40 million Amazon MGM film that makes digs at San Francisco tech executives continues to shoot around the city. Film crews have popped up in the Marina, in Dolores Park and even on the street of one CEO’s mansion.
Details surrounding the film shoot — casting calls for San Francisco stand-ins, and a shared address between Amazon MGM’s studios and the mysterious production company behind the shoots — all but confirm that the movie in question is Amazon MGM’s “Artificial,” directed by Luca Guadagnino (“Challengers”). The film, which is slated to release in 2026, appears to follow the turbulent leadership shakeup at OpenAI in 2023, during which CEO Sam Altman was suddenly fired only to be reinstated a few days later. In the wake of Altman’s return, several AI safety-focused members of OpenAI’s board resigned.
Andrew Garfield, who co-starred in “The Social Network,” stars as Altman. Monica Barbaro, who got an Oscar nomination for her role as Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown,” appears to be playing Mira Murati, former OpenAI chief technology officer. Yura Borisov, who played Igor in “Anora,” has been cast as OpenAI’s former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever. Other actors include Jason Schwartzman and Ike Barinholtz, who will reportedly play Elon Musk.
On Monday, a large film crew shot at Atelier Crenn, Dominique Crenn’s Michelin-starred restaurant in the Marina District. Now, as the shoot continues, more locals are spotting camera crews around the city. On Wednesday evening, a Reddit user on r/sanfrancisco shared photos of Jason Schwartzman (“Mountainhead”) and Borisov filming at Dolores Park. The two were spotted on the benches in the corner of the park. Borisov’s Ilya Sutskever wears a T-shirt with the OpenAI logo and sports a head of thinning hair. Schwartzman, whose role has not yet been revealed, appears to be outfitted with a wig of long, dark hair…