Podbit · The Rest Is Entertainment
Beyond Amazon's original drop, A24 and Netflix have also reportedly passed on distributing Artificial. A movie with an impeccable creative team — Guadagnino directing, Andrew Garfield starring — is becoming an industry-wide pariah, which is arguably more chilling than any single studio decision.
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At 15:00 · chapter starts 14:00
Richard Osman makes a careful distinction: Amazon releasing Artificial to another distributor is not the same as burying it entirely, and at least some countercultural money or distribution route might still exist. But Marina Hyde is less sanguine. She notes that the problem is now industry-wide — A24 and Netflix have also reportedly passed, and people she knows personally with projects about tech billionaires on the books at major studios are being quietly told, 'have you got something different?' Projects that were promised green lights after Trump's 2024 election have not materialised. The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin's sequel to The Social Network, is coming in October, and Sorkin has noted he's only heard from Meta's lawyers asking him to 'just be careful.' But Peter Thiel — extremely litigious, with companies knit into the apparatus of multiple democratic states — has nothing even in development about him [1] — Richard Osman "Beyond Amazon's original drop, A24 and Netflix have also reportedly passed on distributing Artificial. A movie with an impeccable creative …" 15:00 . Marina Hyde's conclusion is stark: the worst aspect of this moment is that the censorship is happening openly, not in the background. Studios are not shamefully hiding their capitulation — they are brazenly announcing it.
Richard Osman makes a measured counterpoint: Amazon releasing the film to another distributor is actually less sinister than if they'd simply buried it and withheld rights. The problem is the pattern — the fact that the industry now structurally avoids these projects before they even begin.
Beyond Amazon dropping the film, A24 and Netflix have also reportedly passed on distributing Artificial, suggesting industry-wide reluctance to take on the project.
The creative industries are caving to tech giants not out of political cowardice but because cloud infrastructure deals make dissent financially suicidal. Studios can't exist without the tech firms — and that dependency is now bending editorial decisions in cinema, news, and late-night television simultaneously.
The entire plot of the original Terminator film depends on the phone book. The Terminator looks up 'Sarah Connor,' finds multiple listings, and starts killing them one by one. No phone book, no movie.
Rico has already appeared in Den of Thieves, Den of Thieves 2, and Roadhouse alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Dave Bautista. Jason Statham is developing a specific role for him. Working alongside elite actors taught Rico something about himself: the emotional suppression that makes him a great fighter is exactly the material that makes great acting — if he learns to stop pushing it away.
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Alan Ritchson walked into a Thor audition with his sides still in his hand, half-assed it on a spotlight-lit stage before two silhouettes in a dark theater, and bombed so completely that the casting director broke protocol to call his team. The feedback? He had no craft. That one sentence sent him to acting school — and changed the trajectory of everything.
Alan Ritchson walked out of his Titans audition so sure he'd booked the lead that he called his wife and told her he was going to buy a Tesla. She said he hadn't booked it. He went and bought the car anyway. His instincts were right — he was offered the role — just not the one he wanted.
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Motor City has no spoken dialogue. Every major leading man in Hollywood — Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Gerard Butler, Adrian Brody — was attached at some point. It was greenlit nine times. The concept was simple: Greg Silverman wanted a film everyone in the world could watch with the exact same experience, regardless of language. Alan Ritchson read the script and called it a masterpiece.
Working with Arnold Schwarzenegger showed Alan Ritchson what 100% recognition looks like. People feel Schwarzenegger before they see him — like a meteor approaching. Alan's wife wants a strict no-photos policy around family. Arnold stops for everyone. The contrast was a master class in how gratitude should manifest when fame is inescapable.
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