Universal Pictures has officially halted the international rollout of Alex Gibney’s highly anticipated Elon Musk documentary, desperately assuring the tech billionaire’s reps that the studio only spent millions on the project to ensure no one would ever see it.
The Comcast-owned distributor originally scooped up the non-North American rights in a heated bidding war, eyeing a lucrative Q4 release. But following a drastic shift in the political winds, studio insiders confirm the project has been aggressively pivoted from a prestige awards-season contender to a $15 million catch-and-kill operation. Sources close to the production note that executives have spent the last 48 hours frantically scrubbing the title from their slate and mailing pieces of the shredded master print to SpaceX headquarters as proof of corporate loyalty.
In this climate, releasing an unflinching look at a guy who can legally reclassify your parent company's cable boxes as federal contraband is just bad box office.
While early tracking suggested strong overseas buzz, Comcast leadership reportedly realized that international ticket sales would not cover the cost of the incoming administration dismantling their broadband monopoly. The studio has already canceled the film's planned red carpet premiere in London, replacing it with a quiet, untelevised ceremony where Universal executives will personally hurl the remaining hard drives into an industrial smelter.
To fill the sudden gap in its Q1 schedule, the studio has rushed a fully compliant replacement feature into production. Universal has reportedly given the green light to an untitled four-hour montage of Comcast executives thanking the billionaire for his service, which is currently tracking for a mandatory release on all Peacock accounts.