Elon Musk Attacks ‘Musk’ Director Alex Gibney Over Documentary

Elon Musk has launched a series of attacks against Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney over the forthcoming documentary “Musk,” accusing the director of deliberately making a negative film about him and questioning Gibney’s integrity.

Musk made the remarks in multiple posts on X this week, including a Thursday post in which he alleged that Gibney had “deliberately set out to make a hit piece” and said the filmmaker “lacks any integrity whatsoever.”

The billionaire’s criticism came days after “Musk” premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The nearly four-hour documentary received strong early reviews, earning a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on its first 12 reviews.

In at least a dozen posts during the week, Musk described Gibney as a “bitter old man who lost the plot long ago” and a “horrible human.” In another post, he wrote, “Dogsh-t is worth more respect than Gibney.”

Musk also objected to the people reportedly interviewed for the documentary, including his former girlfriend Ashley St. Clair, former wife Justine Musk and estranged father Errol Musk. He claimed Gibney had 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).”

Musk also criticized the documentary’s length and claimed it “makes the fatal sin of being boring for 4 hours.” In another post, he dismissed Gibney’s other films as “boring af.”

The dispute has also escalated into a potential legal battle. Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, reportedly sent a Sept. 3 letter to Jigsaw Productions, Gibney’s production company, threatening legal action over an apparent suggestion in the documentary that Musk’s Starlink satellites were used in some way to influence the 2024 presidential election.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Spiro wrote that the insinuation was false and that information contradicting it was publicly available. He also alleged that Gibney had refused to fact-check the documentary with Musk’s representatives, writing, “This project did not begin as an inquiry. It began with a conclusion.”

Jigsaw Productions defended the film in a statement, saying the First Amendment protects open debate and fact-based examination of powerful public figures. The company said that protection should be recognized and defended by Americans, including Musk’s associates, who have described him as a “free speech absolutist.”

Musk has also disputed a claim from Ashley St. Clair that she rejected a $40 million nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented her from appearing in the documentary. In an X post Wednesday, Musk said she was never offered such an agreement and accused her of having a history of making false claims.

“Musk” premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival and examines Musk’s rise to enormous wealth and influence. Gibney said in a Hollywood Reporter cover story that the film’s warning centers on the possibility that Musk is both “crazy” and extremely wealthy and powerful.

Gibney had sought to interview Musk for the documentary, but Musk had expressed hostility toward the project well before its release. In 2023, he described the film as a “hit piece” and referred to Gibney as a “douche” on X.

Because Musk does not appear directly in the documentary, the film uses a computer-generated avatar resembling him. The avatar addresses viewers using real comments previously made by Musk.

The film has drawn praise from critics. Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney described the documentary and its CGI depiction of Musk as a “stroke of creative genius,” saying the information is presented in a highly persuasive package. Deadline critic Matthew Carey called the film “engrossing from the start” and said its length was necessary to address Musk’s substantial influence on contemporary life and politics. Carey characterized the documentary’s portrayal of Musk as that of an “unscrupulous, power-hungry and narcissistic” figure and described him as the child of a distant and difficult father.

Musk was valued at $932.6 billion as of Thursday afternoon, making him the world’s wealthiest person by a substantial margin. He briefly became the first and only trillionaire in June when SpaceX went public. Musk owns 38% of SpaceX and approximately 11% of Tesla.