Alex Gibney’s “Unvarnished” Elon Musk Doc Pre-Sells To HBO For North American Streaming & TV; Film Heads To Cannes Market With Black Bear International

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Documentary Films has pre-bought North American streaming and TV rights to Musk, Alex Gibney‘s upcoming documentary about lightning rod entrepreneur and businessman Elon Musk.

Black Bear has boarded international sales rights on the eve of the Cannes market and will be shopping the high-end doc to overseas buyers.

Taxi To The Dark Side and Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room director Gibney has been working on the project for months. It was recently described by the producers as “a definitive and unvarnished examination” of the provocative Twitter owner.

The deal with HBO was negotiated with UTA’s Independent Film Group, AC Independent, and Double Agent. The door is seemingly ajar for a North American theatrical deal.

Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX CEO Musk recently reassumed his position as the world’s richest man with a net worth in the range of $187BN, but the mercurial tech titan has come under fire during his turbulent ownership of Twitter, which he acquired last year in a $44BN deal.

Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller, Co-Heads of HBO Documentary Films, said today: “We’re thrilled to be working with such a stellar team and always excited to collaborate with Alex Gibney. Alex’s track record speaks for itself, and we know he’ll bring unparalleled craft and dimensionality to this portrait of such a singular figure of our times.”

Pic is being produced by Jigsaw Productions and jointly financed and produced by Closer Media, Anonymous Content via their sales and finance division AC Independent, and Double Agent. 

From Jigsaw Productions, Gibney, Jessie Deeter, and Erin Edeiken produce with Richard Perello executive-producing. Joey Marra and Zhang Xin produce with William Horberg executive-producing on behalf of Closer Media. Anonymous Content’s Nick Shumaker and Jessica Grimshaw produce with David Levine executive-producing. Dana O’Keefe produces on behalf of Double Agent with Teddy Schwarzman, Michael Heimler, John Friedberg, Yariv Milchan, and Michael Schaefer executive-producing.