{
  "id": 6398997,
  "title": "Director Gibney says fear shadowed making of Musk documentary",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/director-gibney-says-fear-shadowed-making-of-musk-documentary",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-09T07:31:24.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Recorder",
    "slug": "business-recorder",
    "url": "https://www.brecorder.com/news/40438646/director-gibney-says-fear-shadowed-making-of-musk-documentary"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.\"",
  "summary": "VENICE: Many people were too frightened to speak publicly about Elon Musk, director Alex Gibney said on Tuesday, as he unveiled his marathon documentary about the billionaire entrepreneur at the [Venice Film Festival]( https://Venice Film Festival). The nearly four-hour movie charts Musk’s rise from the dotcom era to become one of the world’s most influential figures, questioning how an unelected…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "South China Morning Post",
        "title": "Elon Musk says Tesla has a rare-earth-free motor. Should China be worried?",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/08/elon-musk-says-tesla-has-a-rare-earth-free-motor-should-china-be",
        "published": "2026-09-08T13:14:14.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Business Insider",
        "title": "The first teaser for the Elon Musk documentary that Musk is mad about is here",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/08/the-first-teaser-for-the-elon-musk-documentary-that-musk-is-mad-about",
        "published": "2026-09-08T14:40:15.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}