Chris O’Dowd has joined the sprawling cast of Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, Amazon MGM’s drama centered on the true-life story of artificial intelligence company OpenAI.
Artificial has Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, and Monica Barbaro leading a cast that also includes Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Hoffman, Ike Barinholtz, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd and Zosia Mamet.
The movie is being described as a comedic drama, although it is a dramatized recounting of the tumultuous period at OpenAI in 2023 that saw CEO Sam Altman fired and rehired in a matter of days.
Altman co-founded OpenAI but in the fall of that year, amid mounting safety concerns regarding AI and reports of abusive behavior, he was ousted as the head of the company by his board. Five days later, after a revolt, he was reinstated. Garfield is playing Altman.
Details for O’Dowd’s character are being kept in a data center.
Simon Rich wrote the script and is producing alongside Heyday Films’ David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford, as well as Jennifer Fox.
The movie is currently shooting.
Artificial marks the first feature that O’Dowd is doing since 2022’s big-budget fantasy, Slumberland. The Tony Award–nominated and Emmy-winning actor most recently created, directed, and starred in the original Sky series Small Town, Big Story and is generating Emmy buzz for his Black Mirror episode “Common People.”
He is represented by CAA, Gordon & French and 3 Arts.