MUSK Documentary Maker: ‘I Don’t Care What Elon Thinks’

John Johnston (0:00)

I don't really care what he thinks, Gibney says. I mean, I didn't make it for him.

Elon Musk threatens to sue over Gibney Documentary's space lasers claims. A discovery would bury him under a world of pain. He can just lie on Twitter, and his fanboys will believe him anyway.

Hi everyone, JJ here. Welcome back to the Lounge. Well, this week I've been making a series of videos about this new Musk documentary by Alex Gibney, Oscar-winning documentarian, and Elon Musk does not like it, even though he apparently hasn't seen it yet, but he's been fighting back and even threatening legal action. So I'm following this story. So Time Out Films says here, some may already have had more than enough of Elon. For those who can stomach it, this is a fascinating, comprehensive and despairing watch. Our verdict on Alex Gibney's Musk. There's been rave reviews about it and a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival on the premiere, which is partly why Elon Musk doesn't like it. He has been lashing out at the filmmaker, but you know, this is a filmmaker who made Enron, a film about Enron, about Theranos. So this is possibly why Elon is not liking it.

So Business Insider has this headline, Alex Gibney's Elon Musk Documentary goes for the jugular in these three scenes. So let's see what the crux of this is. I haven't seen it obviously. So this is one that I have made videos about the failures of Tesla's self-driving feature, Autopilot are back in the spotlight. The documentary delves into how Musk got involved in Tesla and turned it into a cash cow once the company went public. It also explores the darker side of Tesla's Autopilot, a self-driving feature that has been at the center of several lawsuits, which I have documented as time has gone by. I've been making videos about these things for years at this point. This one from The Guardian, Elon Musk attacks filmmaker behind documentary about him. Tech Mogul calls director Alex Gibney, a bitter old man who has zero integrity in series of post-on-acts. I mean, that's ridiculous to say he's got zero integrity, considering the award-winning and a lot of nominations for his many previous documentaries, which I detailed yesterday in the video. I'll put links to these series in the description if you want to go back if you've missed those. And this one from People, Elon Musk claims new documentary falsely accuses him of manipulating 2024 election, threatens legal action. So I made a video about that yesterday. The nearly four hour documentary features interviews with Musk's ex-wife, former partner, father and colleagues. And from The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Gibney, Team Jabs free speech absolutist and quotes Elon Musk over documentary legal threat. And Alex Gibney, yes, has something to say about that too. Now Musk's attorney declares, we have no choice but to put you on formal legal notice as the tech titan slams the buzzy documentary on eggs as a film. Now I talked about that, what his lawyer said, but we'll see more about that today as well. And this too from Fred Lambert from Electric. Yeah, I think he's probably the best Tesla journalist, been reporting on it for years on his website, Electric. He says, please, Elon fanboys have been claiming that Elon would sue me for years.

And he never has. Why?

Because the discovery would bury him under a world of pain. He can just lie on Twitter and his fanboys will believe him anyway.

So this is a new video here. Alex Gibney says, he doesn't really care what Elon Musk thinks of his documentary. Now, I don't think I can play this video, this particular media organization, really strict on copyright, but he says in this video, he's going to love this film talking about Elon. Well, already he's making his feelings about the film known, even though of course he hasn't seen it. So this was post the premiere in Venice. So that's interesting. I thought that Elon might have seen it, but apparently not. So he's going off about it without even having seen it. I don't really care what he thinks, Gibney says. I mean, I didn't make it for him. Just before the premiere in Venice, he tweeted out, he's a douche bag to his core. And I tweeted back, I don't know, Elon, maybe you'll like the film. After all, you're in it a lot. And he smiles in the video after saying that. Now Musk is a vowed free speech absolutist, he says. Yeah, right. But it's clear that when speech is critical of him, he's not so much of an absolutist. Yes, indeed. He just does not like criticism of him. This is going to be very high profile criticism in this really respected documentarian's high profile documentary. Politics, not only are the elections coming up, he says, but you can see his tendril spreading. You know, the recent success of AFD in Germany, I made a video about that, that not a lot of people saw. Go and see that if you want to. Elon helping the AFD party in Germany, far-right party getting elected in a regional election, an important one, so helping with momentum there. It's not the only place that he's helped out, right? Or he supported these parties. Now, Gibney says his attempts to interfere with the election in Brazil, with Bolsonaro, what he's doing with Erdogan in Turkey, you know, all over the world, he's trying to change the world in a way that will be more transactional and favorable to a handful of oligarchs who want to maintain power over the rest of us. Oh yeah, I think we're at a knife edge. So yeah, that was an interesting thing that he said there. Things that I've been documenting, things that Gil Geran documented in his new book, The Nerd Rike, made videos about that, where he is well-researched, detailed about this group of oligarchs, these tech oligarchs who have turned really to the far right and they're anti-democratic. And so it's good that he's saying that and that he's making a movie at this time. It's taken years to make, so it's going to be really interesting. Coming out in mid-October in theaters and streamed online, I think, HBO.