Universal May Drop Elon Musk Film, Triggering Multimillion-Dollar Kill Fee

Q: What explosive claims in Alex Gibney's documentary pushed Elon Musk's legal team to threaten a major Hollywood studio?

The main trigger was the documentary’s suggestion that Musk may have used or discussed using Starlink in connection with the 2024 election. According to multiple reports, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro objected to a scene built around comments from Ashley St. Clair, who says Musk told her before the election he would “unleash the anomaly in the matrix” and that he had “10,000 lasers in space.” In the film, that remark is presented in a way Musk’s legal team says could lead viewers to infer that Starlink satellites somehow helped affect election outcomes. Spiro’s notice argues that implication is false and defamatory. He said Starlink “was not connected to vote tabulation,” and that public reporting, election officials, and independent cybersecurity researchers had already rejected claims that Starlink was used to alter votes. He also said Musk’s “lasers in space” comment referred to Starlink’s inter-satellite laser links, not election activity. Beyond that disputed sequence, the film is broadly critical of Musk, portraying him as a powerful figure who bends facts to his advantage and examining issues including Tesla self-driving safety claims, his business conduct, personal relationships, and political influence. But the legal threat reported before the Venice premiere appears to have centered most sharply on the Starlink-election insinuation, which Musk’s camp viewed as the most potentially actionable claim.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Sep 17

Universal has not set a date or shared release plans for Alex Gibney’s four-hour Musk documentary, and people familiar with the matter said it was leaning toward shelving the film and returning rights.
Political risk appears to be driving the rethink: the film alleges Musk could use DOGE-era data against Democrats, Musk’s lawyer has put producers “on notice,” and FCC Chair Brendan Carr oversees a Comcast DEI probe.
A cancellation would force Universal to pay a kill fee under its deal, while freeing filmmakers to resell international rights that the studio bought in 2023 for a multimillion-dollar sum.
The reversal would come despite a strong Venice reception and ahead of a U.S. theatrical release by Bleecker Street, a London Film Festival screening next month, and a potential HBO debut as early as February.