Elon Musk Threatens Legal Action Against Alex Gibney's 'Musk' Documentary, Calls It 'Hit Piece' After Venice

VENICE, Italy — Elon Musk is threatening legal action against filmmaker Alex Gibney over a nearly four-hour documentary examining the billionaire's influence across technology, business and politics, following the film's world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, where it received a five-minute standing ovation.

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Gibney's production company, Jigsaw Productions, on Sept. 3, putting the team on "formal legal notice" over claims made in the documentary, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The letter specifically focuses on an insinuation the film makes suggesting Musk used his Starlink satellite network to help influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election in favor of President Donald Trump.

Spiro's letter argued that Gibney's production failed to properly verify its claims before moving forward with the film.

"You are on notice, before release, that the insinuation is false, that the material refuting it is public, and that you chose not to be told the rest," Spiro wrote to Jigsaw Productions.

The letter also accused the production of declining multiple opportunities to fact-check its reporting directly with Musk's team or with individuals who could have offered contradicting testimony.

"This project did not begin as an inquiry," Spiro wrote. "It began with a conclusion ... Because you have refused to screen the film, refused to fact-check it with us, and refused the witnesses who came to you, we have every reason to expect that it contains further statements about Mr. Musk that you know to be false, or whose falsity you have deliberately chosen not to investigate. We therefore have no choice but to put you on formal legal notice regarding your upcoming piece and to reserve all rights. Our door is open if you decide to check your facts with the people who know them."

Musk himself took to X in the days following the premiere to publicly attack both the film and Gibney directly, despite reportedly not yet having watched the documentary himself.

"Gibney just assembled a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don't even know me," Musk wrote. "Horrible human." In a separate post, Musk added: "Gutless Gibney's fatal flaw of fabricating a false film." Musk also described the film elsewhere on X as "a hit piece that misses and makes the fatal sin of being boring for 4 hours," and separately wrote, "Gibney deliberately set out to make a hit piece and lacks any integrity whatsoever."

Jigsaw Productions responded to Musk's legal threat with a statement defending Gibney's journalistic track record.

"Alex Gibney's films are consistently recognized for their in-depth, fact-driven explorations of influential figures and corporations, coupled with his bold and engaging directorial style," the statement read. "This approach has garnered him international praise, an Academy Award among other accolades, and a reputation that The Times of London recently lauded as the 'gold standard for fearless journalistic integrity.' The right to engage in open debate and fact-based examinations of powerful public figures is protected by the first amendment — something that should be recognized and defended by all Americans, including the associates of Elon Musk, who has proclaimed himself to be a 'free speech absolutist.'"

The documentary, titled simply "Musk," runs 225 minutes and examines the tech billionaire's expanding influence across Tesla, SpaceX, X and his broader political activities. According to Deadline's review of the film, it takes a particularly critical look at Tesla's safety record and fatal incidents involving the company's self-driving technology, with experts featured in the documentary accusing Tesla of overstating its vehicles' battery range, misleading regulators, and promoting a battery-swapping network specifically to obtain government subsidies. The film also raises concerns about how Musk's companies collect and could potentially use massive amounts of data to support his broader artificial intelligence ambitions.

Musk declined to participate directly in the documentary, though Gibney has said he had initially invited Musk to take part in the project. Because Musk himself did not sit for interviews, the film reportedly uses an AI-generated version of Musk's voice to repeat his own previously made public statements throughout the documentary.

The film has drawn strongly positive reviews from critics following its Venice premiere, holding a 100% average critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this week. The platform's synopsis describes the documentary as "an incisive look behind the legend of Elon Musk, the world's most heralded 'inventor-entrepreneur' who has enormous influence on the world in which we all live."

The dispute between Musk and Gibney is not entirely new. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Musk predicted back in 2023 that the eventual documentary would amount to a "hit piece," a characterization Gibney reportedly pushed back on at the time before proceeding with the project regardless.

The film's premiere also drew attention for a separate development involving Ashley St. Clair, who gave birth to Musk's 13th child last year. According to Variety, St. Clair revealed following the Venice premiere that her decision not to sign a nondisclosure agreement with Musk, one she said would have included a $40 million payment, ultimately allowed her to speak publicly about her former partner within the documentary itself.

"Musk," distributed by Bleecker Street, is scheduled to hit U.S. theaters in October, following its Venice debut. With Musk's attorney having formally put the production on legal notice and Musk himself continuing to publicly denounce the film on social media, the documentary's theatrical release next month appears likely to arrive amid continued public sparring between the world's wealthiest man and the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind one of the more closely watched documentaries of this year's festival circuit.