While most filmgoers are focused on the staying power of the new Spider-Man film or Marvel’s upcoming Avengers movie, featuring the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, some of the most interesting films of the coming months might have less to do with comic books and more to do with the leaders and prominent personalities of the tech world.
Biopics are generally hit or miss at the box office, but a slew of upcoming releases focused on big names of technology companies are garnering attention and raising eyebrows.
That could be good news for studios and theater chains, who are hoping to keep up the momentum after a record-breaking summer during which box office totals topped $4.67 billion. Here are some of the tech leaders who will be movie stars, though not necessarily of their own volition, in the coming months.
Elizabeth Holmes
When the trailer for Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything dropped a little over a week ago, it appeared to be a well-acted, skillfully directed psychological horror film. But then people realized the woman they were seeing in the extreme close-ups wasn’t an up-and-coming actress; it was Holmes, the founder of Theranos, who was convicted of defrauding investors in the blood testing company.
A surprise showing of the film at the Telluride Film Festival around the same time has only increased interest in the film, in which Holmes invited the filmmakers into her home 34 days before she reported to prison. After she began serving her sentence, things apparently went even further off the rails. A24’s promotional material for the film calls it a journey “into the abyss.” The filmmakers reportedly challenge audiences to tell honesty from performance, as they found themselves confused sometimes.
The 174-minute film is scheduled for a wide theatrical release on October 16.
Elon Musk
Musk, an explosive, nearly four-hour documentary about the world’s richest man and leader of Tesla and SpaceX, made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by Alex Gibney, the Oscar winner known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the film was made without Musk’s cooperation.
While Musk may not have talked to the filmmaker, his ex-wife, Justine Musk, reportedly has plenty to say about their marriage, saying she “learned the term gaslighting” through him. She claims that at their wedding reception he told her “I am the alpha in this relationship,” and that he was “constantly remarking on the ways he found me lacking.” Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of his other children, also appears, saying she turned down a $40 million nondisclosure agreement so she could speak freely in the film.
Musk has preemptively trashed the film, calling Gibney “a douchebag to his core.”
The film, which runs 3 hours and 45 minutes, will release in theaters on October 16 and premiere on HBO Max next year.
Sam Altman
Unlike the Musk and Holmes pictures, this isn’t a documentary, but rather a biopic that focuses on the OpenAI CEO. Artificial stars Andrew Garfield as Altman in a film directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name).
The film covers the disruptive events at OpenAI in 2023, when Altman was abruptly fired and then reinstated five days later. The film has had a bit of a rocky road, with Amazon MGM Studios, the original distributor, dropping it after it signed a partnership with OpenAI. Musk also makes an appearance in this film, played by an actor, and insiders who have seen the movie say neither Altman nor Musk emerge as sympathetic characters.
The film will release on Christmas Day, December 25.
Mark Zuckerberg
The Social Reckoning is a companion piece to 2010’s The Social Network, once again written—and this time directed—by Aaron Sorkin. The film focuses on the time around The Wall Street Journal’s exposé “The Facebook Files” in 2021, looking at the disclosure of sensitive company information by the Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and the fallout from it.
Jeremy Strong (Kendall Roy in Succession) portrays Zuckerberg, taking over from Jesse Eisenberg, who played him 16 years ago.
The film hits theaters on October 9.