Here’s THR with the “exclusive.” Universal Pictures, which holds rights to Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk” everywhere outside North America, appears to be reconsidering whether to release it.
The film got reviews at Venice — 77 on Metacritic — but Universal hasn’t set a release date or updated the filmmakers. Two unnamed sources expect the studio to drop it and return the rights, though no final decision has been made and Universal declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Bleecker Street will release it in U.S. theaters this October. They haven’t budged, and will go through with it.
Post-Venice, the film failed to make much of a spark at TIFF, where it screened in the doc section, and its Oscar ambitions (which included Bleecker being dead serious about campaigning it for best picture) seem to have faded. Hell, it might not even get nominated for best documentary, since much buzzier and more acclaimed nonfiction is in the running, including “NAZA,” “You Can See Everything,” “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” and “American Doctor.”
Although the four-hour doc doesn’t tell us much we didn’t already know about Musk, it suggests (in its final few minutes) that Musk could use data gathered during his DOGE tenure against Democrats in the midterms, and it includes theories about AI-enabled election interference. Musk has called the film a “hit piece,” and his lawyer sent Gibney’s company a warning letter. Universal bought the rights in 2023.
If Universal backs out, it would owe the filmmakers a kill fee, and they could then resell the film. HBO does hold the North American TV and streaming rights, and is still moving ahead — the earliest it could air the film is February, by which point a David Ellison-led acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery could complicate things, since the film briefly criticizes his father, Larry Ellison.
Now, of course, the main question is whether Universal’s cold feet are due to political pressure (not wanting to be stuck holding a hot potato) or whether the finished film just isn’t what the studio expected when it signed on three years ago. The smart money says it’s the former.