Alex Gibney’s long-gestating documentary about tech mogul Elon Musk is lastly heading to the Venice Worldwide Movie Pageant for its world premiere. The documentary, titled merely “Musk,” arrives with an enormous, almost four-hour runtime.
Musk, who has been outspoken in his criticism of films like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” beforehand dismissed the documentary as a “hit piece.”
Alex Gibney’s documentary on Elon Musk will premiere on the Venice Movie Pageant in September. The 232-minute characteristic was unveiled as a part of the competition’s official lineup by creative director Alberto Barbera in Rome on Thursday.
In the course of the announcement, Barbera paused to emphasise the movie’s extraordinary runtime, reflecting simply how a lot of the controversial tech billionaire’s story is packed into the documentary.
“I invite you to have a look at the period of the film — 4 hours,” Barbera mentioned, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“[Gibney] traces the entire profession — the contradictions, and the conditioning energy that’s centralized within the arms of a single man,” he added. “Contemplate a genius of capitalist entrepreneurship, but in addition a harmful technocrat, with no ethical scruples.”
Why The ‘Musk’ Documentary Took So Lengthy To End
First introduced in March 2023 as a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of the billionaire entrepreneur, the movie endured an prolonged manufacturing timeline as Musk’s affect and public profile continued to develop.
Gibney reportedly accomplished an preliminary reduce in early 2025 however later returned to the enhancing room to include main developments, together with Musk’s political alignment with Donald Trump and his position co-leading the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).
Because the Tesla chief government continued producing headline-grabbing controversies, many questioned whether or not Gibney’s mission would ever actually be completed.
Backers HBO Documentary Movies and Bleecker Road acknowledged that problem in a joint assertion, noting that “the movie continues to develop in scope because the story evolves.”
Elon Musk Branded The Movie A ‘Hit Piece’
Musk has publicly expressed skepticism concerning the mission because it was first introduced. After information of the documentary broke in 2023, he posted on X that the movie was a “hit piece,” prompting a short trade with Gibney, who replied: “How would you recognize?”
The SpaceX founder additionally as soon as tweeted, “Gibney is a douche,” to which the filmmaker later joked that he responded, “douché.”
Gibney isn’t any stranger to investigative documentaries centered on highly effective figures and main firms. His earlier credit embody “Enron: The Smartest Guys within the Room,” the Scientology exposé “Going Clear,” and “Steve Jobs: The Man within the Machine.” He additionally gained the Academy Award for Finest Documentary Function in 2008 for “Taxi to the Darkish Aspect.”
“Musk” opens in U.S. theaters on October 16, whereas HBO Documentary Movies holds the North American tv and streaming rights.
Elon Musk Has Steadily Focused Hollywood Movies
Musk has made a behavior of publicly criticizing Hollywood tasks he doesn’t help. Within the months main as much as the discharge of Christopher Nolan’s epic “The Odyssey,” he repeatedly mocked the movie, claiming the director was extra targeted on awards than historic accuracy due to his casting decisions.
He additionally criticized Nolan’s resolution to solid Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, accusing the filmmaker of “pissing on Homer’s grave” in reference to the legendary writer of the epic poem.
In response, Musk introduced that his AI platform, Grok Think about, would create what he described as a “traditionally correct” full-length adaptation of the story.
Nonetheless, Nolan finally had the final snigger after “The Odyssey” debuted to greater than $264 million worldwide, giving the Oscar-winning director the largest world opening weekend of his profession.
Director Referred to as Musk’s Views On Cinema ‘Nugatory’
Musk’s repeated criticism of “The Odyssey” additionally drew backlash from filmmaker Scott Derrickson, who dismissed the billionaire’s opinions on cinema.
“Clearly @elonmusk doesn’t know sh-t about cinema & he stopped studying in his 20s,” the “Physician Unusual” director wrote in a since-deleted X put up. “His opinions on artwork are nugatory.”
Nolan additionally appeared to brush off the criticism throughout an interview with The Telegraph, arguing that conversations surrounding the movie earlier than its launch carried little weight.
“However look, these conversations that occur earlier than individuals see the movie—they’re all the time irrelevant, as a result of nobody having them is aware of what the movie really is but,” the acclaimed director mentioned.
