Elon Musk's attorney threatens defamation lawsuit over Venice documentary

Legal team issues defamation warning before Venice premiere

Elon Musk's legal team has issued a formal defamation warning to the producers of a nearly four-hour documentary about the billionaire, days before its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this month.

Attorney Alex Spiro, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan who has represented high-profile clients including Jay-Z, Alec Baldwin, and NYC Mayor Eric Adams, sent a September 3 letter to Jigsaw Productions accusing Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney of building the film around a predetermined conclusion.

The 232-minute documentary, titled "Musk," premiered on September 3 at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival to a lengthy standing ovation and strong reviews from critics. Trade publication Variety called it a "lacerating portrait," while Deadline described the film as "damning" and said it "thrashed" Musk as "petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel."

"This project did not begin as an inquiry. It began with a conclusion," Spiro wrote in the letter, which was addressed to a producer at Gibney's production company. The letter also accused the filmmaker of refusing to fact-check the documentary with Musk or people close to him.

Legal notice targets conspiracy theory sequence

The legal notice specifically focuses on a sequence that Spiro says advances a conspiracy theory: that Musk knew early on election night 2024 that Donald Trump had won because his Starlink satellites had been used to influence the result.

Spiro's letter puts not only Gibney and Jigsaw Productions on notice but everyone involved in the film's release, including HBO, Bleecker Street, and Universal. The documentary is scheduled to open in American cinemas on October 16.

Gibney, who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2008 for "Taxi to the Dark Side," which examined US military interrogation practices in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo, has a track record of investigating powerful institutions. His 2015 documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" won three Emmy Awards for its examination of the Church of Scientology.

Jigsaw Productions, which received investment from and an ownership stake by Imagine Entertainment in June 2020, responded to the legal threat with a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. The company said scrutiny of powerful public figures is protected by the First Amendment and that all Americans should defend this right, "including the associates of Elon Musk, who has proclaimed himself to be a 'free speech absolutist.'"

Documentary traces entrepreneur's rise to trillionaire status

The film traces Musk's career from his early days as a dot-com entrepreneur in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s to becoming the world's first trillionaire. Musk reached that milestone on June 12, 2026, when SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq, with his net worth reaching approximately $1.05 trillion, though it has fluctuated since then.

The documentary also delves into Musk's personal life, including his difficult childhood in South Africa and the 14 known children he has fathered with a series of women.

On the grounds that litigation is "reasonably anticipated," Spiro's letter orders the filmmakers to preserve every trace of the project, including footage, interview transcripts, research files, and internal communications.

Spiro has successfully defended Musk in multiple high-profile legal cases, including a 2023 securities fraud trial where Musk was found not liable for his 2018 "funding secured" tweet about taking Tesla private.

Musk has spent several days attacking Gibney on X, the social media platform he owns, calling the film a "hit piece that misses" and dismissing it as boring. Despite the criticism, the documentary's reception at Venice suggests significant interest in Gibney's examination of one of the world's most controversial billionaires.