A source familiar with the matter told TheWrap that the studio’s commitment to the film remains unchanged and that executives are now finalising an international release strategy, with Universal retaining the rights to distribute the documentary in foreign markets.
The clarification follows a Hollywood Reporter story that suggested Universal was pulling back from releasing the feature outside North America, a claim the studio now disputes.
“Musk” debuted to widespread acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, where critics praised its exhaustive portrait of the billionaire entrepreneur. The film runs 235 minutes, including a 10‑minute intermission, and traces Elon Musk’s journey from the son of an emerald‑mine investor to a Silicon Valley titan, owner of Twitter/X, and former confidante of Donald Trump.
The documentary does not feature any participation from Musk himself. Instead, it relies heavily on interviews with people from his personal life, most notably his ex‑wife Justine Musk and former conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, who described Musk as a “nuke.”
Director Alex Gibney, an Academy Award‑winning documentarian known for works such as “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” and “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” initially set out to produce a straightforward profile of Musk’s early career. As the project progressed, Gibney says the narrative evolved into a darker examination of how Musk’s technological and financial power has been wielded for controversial ends, including his involvement with the Trump administration and the creation of the government‑style agency DOGE that allegedly shuttered agencies and dismissed thousands of federal workers.
The official logline describes the film as “an incisive look behind the legend of Elon Musk, the world’s most heralded ‘investor‑entrepreneur’ who has enormous influence on the world in which we all live.”
Bleecker Street is slated to handle the theatrical rollout in the United States on October 16, while an extended version of the documentary is slated for release on HBO sometime in 2027.