From Thomas L. Friedman‘s “Trump Put His Own Interests Above All in the Iran Deal“, posted on 6.19.26:

Except Platner cheated on his girlfriends rather than the other way around.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, presumably irate about Luca Guagdagnino‘s Artificial portraying him as some kind of shithead, civilization-destroying villain, has seemingly persuaded Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to drop Artificial and cast it out upon the heaving seas.

Another distributor will step into the breach, of course, but this obviously means that Artificial absolutely, positively has to premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, going right up against Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Reckoning. Because it’s now officially a controversial hot-potato film, and there can be no wimping out any more. No more candy-assing! This situation needs real men.

Puck reported the news first; Variety‘s Ellise Shafer and Alex Ritman quickly followed up.

Variety #1: “The move notably comes after Amazon struck a massive partnership with the tech company in February to expand OpenAI’s use of Amazon Web Services and develop custom AI models, which included a $50 billion investment on Amazon’s part.” Altman and Bezos are pally-wallies. Variety has reported: that Altman attended Bezos’s Italian wedding last year.

Variety #2: “Variety understands that, prior to being dropped by Amazon, Artificial already had several test screenings, which went down very positively, and screened for other studios on Thursday. According to an insider who has seen the movie, the characters of Altman and Musk are the least sympathetic and the ones audiences would “like the least”. It’s also understood that Amazon had seen all the early iterations of the script, before Guadagnino boarded the project.”

The leading good guy in Artificial is Yura Borisov‘s Ilya Sutskever, the former OpenAI chief scientist. Borisov scored big-time as the tender, considerate, bald-headed goon in Anora.

Andrew Garfield plays Altman, Monica “Joan Baez” Barbaro is former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, and Ike Barinholtz plays effing Elon Musk. Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet, Angus Imrie, Chris O’Dowd and Mark Rylance costar. Penned by Simon Rich, the script is primarily about a brief period in ’23 when Altman was canned from his position at OpenAI, and was then rehired.

Last March Steven Spielberg told a SXSW fanboy audience (is there any other kind?) that he was developing a “kick ass”, cliche-free western, etc.

Except there’s truly nowhere fresh to go with an oater these days. Okay, there’s one idea that Billy Bob Thornton shared at a party a few years ago: The first-ever Old West psychiatrist sets up a small practice in Tuscon or Tombstone or Dodge City. But this is an inherently humorous idea, and certainly an eccentric one. Spielberg hasn’t the character to address such a premise with dryness or subtlety.

The only half-intriguing possibilities for Spielberg would be classic western remakes.

He’s probably too old for the rigors of remaking Howard Hawks’ Red River (‘48) — a film that would have been even grander if it had been shot in good old luscious Technicolor — but what about remaking Martin Ritt’s Hud (‘63)? Or dusting off the script of Ritt’s Roadshow, a modern-day cattle-drive flick that was never filmed?

How about Beardo directing a more believable version of John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (casting lead actors who aren’t 25 years too old, no sound-stage echoes, realistic aging makeup, no cigar smoke summoning a flashback, no over-acted comic relief perfs from Andy Devine types or overly colorful, tediously eccentric supporting perfs from Edmond O’Brien-level veterans)?

The last truly great feature western, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, happened 33 years ago. Before that was Sam Peckinpah The Wild Bunch in ‘69, and before that came Hud, you bet. William Wyler’s The Big Country (‘58), Don Maguire’s Johnny Concho (‘56), Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (‘54) and Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (‘52) were the big 1950s stand-outs.

If and when Spielberg shoots a western will he have the political courage to stand up to Tony Kushner and other progressive colleagues by not inserting woke presentism? Doubtful. Remember that ridiculous Lincoln moment in which David Oyelowo, playing a Union infantry soldier, tells Daniel Day Lewis’s Great Emancipator that he’s disappointed that men of color aren’t allowed to serve as officers?

With nearly everyone and his brother trashing Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg must be feeling pretty badly right now. His alien chase thriller performed decently last weekend, but it’s been brushed off by too many knowledgable people.

And now comes Echo Chamberlain suggesting that the great young lions of the ’70s (Spielberg, Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott…not to mention Lucas and DePalma) are pretty much spent and should hang up their holsters.

It seems in retrospect that Spielberg’s last golden moment might have happened eight and a half years ago, when Susan Lacy‘s two-and-a half-hour Spielberg premiered on HBO.

But even then the adoring Lacy seemed to be acknowledging by omission that Spielberg’s best years had unfurled in the 20th Century.

HE review: “There’s more emotional revelation and honesty and cinematic punch in Lacy’s doc than in many of Spielberg’s features, certainly the ones he’s made over the last 20-plus years.

“It begins with a taste of Lawrence of Arabia and then a recollection from Spielberg about how he saw it repeatedly at age 16 and how it seemed so masterful that he nearly gave up his dream of becoming a movie director.

“Right from the start I was saying to myself, ‘I love this…this is about my church, my faith and all the movie dreams I’ve carried inside for decades…I love it already and it hasn’t even begun.’

“Does Lacy shamelessly brown-nose? Yup, ‘fraid so. Does she sidestep, avert her gaze, emphasize the positive and avoid tough questions at almost every turn? Yes, she does. Is Spielberg, in fact, a 150-minute blowjob? Yeah, it is.

“But it’s a classy and beautifully assembled one. Spielberg delivers what most of us refer to as ‘the goods.’ It offers balance, panache, love, perspective, open hearts, insight, joie de cinema and elegant editing and…oh, just a feeling of immense comfort and familiarity and fraternal bon ami.

“I kind of loved it despite Lacy’s herculean determination to avoid telling the real truth about Spielberg-the-magnificent-and-bowed-down-to, which is that he’s a truly gifted superhack, a very clever and hugely energetic guy who knows how to shoot the hell out of anything but has come to few conclusions and has next to nothing to say about the human condition or the state of the world, but has been insanely successful and that’s all that matters to most of the people in this town so what the hell…ass-smooch!

“I take back that ‘nothing to say’ stuff — Spielberg has often expressed his sentiments about how suburban family life is the greatest thing and how moms are generally more reliable than dads and that having an inner fantasy life can save you, etc.

“The best parts are about Spielberg recalling his home life in a Pheonix suburb, his early discomfort about being a supposed Jewish outsider (a mindset that he profoundly reversed with the act of making Schindler’s List), his parents’ divorce (although he never explains why), the early feelings of inadequacy, how he had no life until his first son, Max, came along, etc.

Read more

I’ve always liked James Franco, and was certainly dead set against his being canceled over power-imbalance girlie action, so I wanted to like the alien-in-the-garage video. I want the woke monsters to let bygones be bygones and let him back in. I actually think Franco could come back. Look at Armie Hammer! Uwe Boll‘s Citizen Vigilante isn’t very good, but it’s a portal — Armie can build from there.

The point is that I believed Franco’s acting in the alien video. I believed his bullshit story, and on the strength of this he really should be let back in…really. Because he brings you in.

But as we all know well, the liberal / progressive / Democratic Party’s desire to not win and commit suicide is profound. All they care about is one screeching harpie and that’s it — the alleged sexual abuser (Franco or whomever) must be sent to the gallows. All that matters in the end, I feel, is how good an actor is on-screen (or on YouTube).

@jamesfranco2319

I saw something NOT HUMAN in my garage.

♬ original sound – James Franco

When I think of Elia Kazan‘s A Streetcar Named Desire (‘51), I think of the same central essence that everyone else thinks of, which is that it’s an incredibly sad play.

But specific-ingredient-wise, I mainly think of Alex North’s score. Especially the track titled “Mania.” And I don’t care if anyone agrees or cares or whatever. I know what I know.

Another way of putting it is that the gray, grizzled, gravelly-voiced R. Hood gradually lets down his guard, painfully self-examines and experiences an Ebenezer Scrooge-like rebirth of sorts.

A fable of de-balling, straight out of the 21st Century woke playbook.

Right? I haven’t seen it. (Why would anyone want to see a film titled The Death of Robin Hood?) I’m just guessing based on the poster and the trailer.