Topline
Billionaire Elon Musk repeatedly attacked Alex Gibney, the director of the forthcoming documentary “Musk,” in posts on X this week, slamming him as a “horrible human” and a “bitter old man” while also reportedly threatening legal action.
“Musk” premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Musk alleged Gibney “deliberately set out to make a hit piece” in a post on X on Thursday morning, saying the Oscar-winning director “lacks any integrity whatsoever.”
The billionaire’s social media rant came days after “Musk” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it impressed critics and achieved a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes from the first 12 reviews.
Across at least a dozen tweets posted this week, Musk also called Gibney a “bitter old man who lost the plot long ago” and a “horrible human,” saying in one post, “Dogsh-t is worth more respect than Gibney.”
Musk criticized Gibney’s choice of interviewees, which reportedly include Musk’s former girlfriend Ashley St. Clair, ex-wife Justine Musk and estranged father Errol Musk, saying, “Gibney just assembled a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don’t even know me (but still have an axe to grind).”
The documentary “makes the fatal sin of being boring for 4 hours,” Musk alleged, also saying Gibney’s other films are “boring af.”
Musk Threatens Legal Action
Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro reportedly sent a letter to Jigsaw Productions, Gibney’s production company, threatening legal action over a claim apparently made in the documentary that Musk’s Starlink satellites were somehow used to influence the 2024 presidential election. “You are on notice, before release, that the insinuation is false, that the material refuting it is public, and that you chose not to be told the rest,” Spiro wrote in a letter dated Sept. 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “This project did not begin as an inquiry. It began with a conclusion,” Spiro said, alleging Gibney “refused to fact-check it with us.” In response, Jigsaw Productions said in a statement, “The right to engage in open debate and fact-based examinations of powerful public figures is protected by the first amendment — something that should be recognized and defended by all Americans, including the associates of Elon Musk, who has proclaimed himself to be a ‘free speech absolutist,’” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
surprising fact
Musk rebuffed a claim made by St. Clair that she turned down a $40 million nondisclosure agreement, which would have barred her from participating in the documentary. “She was never offered that and has a history of making false claims,” Musk said in a post on X on Wednesday.
key background
The nearly four-hour “Musk” documentary premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival, tracing Musk’s path to amassing an exorbitant amount of wealth. In a cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, Gibney said the “terrifying thing might be that [Musk is] crazy and he’s very rich and powerful. That’s the warning bell the film sounds.” Gibney sought to interview Musk for the documentary, but Musk was publicly hostile even early in the movie’s development, calling the film a “hit piece” and Gibney a “douche” on X in 2023. The documentary instead features a computer-generated avatar resembling Musk who speaks to the audience, using real comments Musk has made. The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney called the documentary, and the CGI Musk, a “stroke of creative genius,” saying it presents information in a “very persuasive package that will leave many audiences chilled to the bone.” Deadline critic Matthew Carey said the lengthy film is “engrossing from the start” and is a “necessary length to confront Musk’s immense impact on contemporary life and politics,” adding the film portrays Musk as “unscrupulous, power-hungry and narcissistic, the child of a distant, difficult father.”
forbes valuation
Musk is worth $932.6 billion as of Thursday afternoon, according to Forbes estimates, making him the wealthiest person in the world by a vast margin. Musk was briefly the world’s first and only trillionaire in June when he took SpaceX public. Musk owns 38% of SpaceX and about 11% of Tesla.
further reading
‘Musk’ Documentary Portrays Tesla Billionaire As An ‘Unabashed Megalomaniac,’ First Reviews Say (Forbes)
Alex Gibney Team Jabs “Free Speech Absolutist” Elon Musk Over Documentary Legal Threat (The Hollywood Reporter)
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