Director Gibney says fear shadowed making of Musk documentary

Director Alex Gibney revealed on Tuesday that fear permeated the making of his extensive documentary about billionaire Elon Musk at the Venice Film Festival. Struggling to complete the nearly four-hour film, Gibney noted that "there was a tremendous sense of fear of talking, really almost existential fear," from critics, colleagues, and friends of Musk.

The project originally envisioned as shorter, Gibney began work in 2023 intending to focus on Musk's career before entanglement with Donald Trump and the U.S. presidency. Musk, who declined to be interviewed, criticized the film as biased, vowing to create the most "terrible hit piece" possible. Gibney, collaborating with journalists Zoe Schiffer and Ashley St. Clair, describes Musk's rise as a "confidence man" building his empire on inflated visions and promises.

The film ties Musk's acquisition of Twitter, cost-cutting measures, and reliance on federal contracts to his unprecedented power and wealth. Notably, it documents Musk's shift towards far-right political causes worldwide and his growing danger to global democracy. St. Clair, who rejected a $40 million NDA from Musk, echoes this sentiment, stating, "Elon is a nuke."