It’s absolutely fine that Darren Aronofsky is making an Elon Musk movie, you fucking morons
Could this blog post have been an irate tweet (sorry Elon, ‘post’)? Probably! But I want to blog it for posterity just in case the continued decline of X (sorry Elon) results in the whole hellsite spontaneously combusting.
It was announced last week that Darren Aronofsky, a filmmaker of some renown, is set to direct a film about Elon Musk, hot on the heels of a landmark Walter Isaacson biography.
Film Twitter (and beyond) has largely reacted with anger and confusion.
(Reddit comment from two hours before this blog was published: “Aronofsky hasn’t even started to make that biopic, but it already aged like milk. How many more times will Elon make a fool of himself till that movie premieres?”)
Sigh.
The more things change the more things stay the same.
The reaction was exactly the same when it was announced, some 14+ years ago, that David Fincher was making ‘a Facebook movie’ (Summed up: no thanks).
He ended up delivering a 21st century masterpiece (The fucking King’s Speech winning over The Social Network at the Oscars: sick and wrong).
Granted, Zuckerberg at the time was merely uncool and not the public enemy No1 that Musk is intent on casting himself (and that Zuckerberg turned into, for a time).
But let’s trust our filmmakers? Especially those who clearly have some artistic flair and agency? (The Whale is a bad movie).
There’s no evidence this will be a hagiography. Isaacson’s book is reported to basically paint Musk as an overpowered, juvenile man-child.
Scriptwriting and casting will be a difficult needle to thread, as will deciding what part of Musk’s chaotic life to concentrate on.
But Aronofsky is a director not afraid to take risks (see: Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, mother!).
No one should be close-minded enough to damn it yet.
