From the twisted mind of Darren Aronofsky, a biopic about the twisted mind of Elon Musk

If there had to be a biopic about Elon Musk (does there have to be?), it might as well be some messed up, off-putting psychological horror show. At least, that’s what one would assume the Darren Aronofsky version of Musk’s life will be. The filmmaker behind such twisted classics as Requiem For A Dream, mother!, and most recently The Whale has reportedly signed on to direct a new film about Musk for A24, and, well, he certainly has a lot of material to work with for this one.

The material specifically comes from Walter Isaacson’s recent best-selling biography Elon Musk. According to Variety, indie studio A24 won a heated bidding war for the rights to adapt the script. Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs was adapted for the screen back in 2015 starring Michael Fassbender. (In a Q&A attended by The A.V. Club, Isaacson said Musk’s desire to share a biographer with vaunted geniuses like Jobs and Albert Einstein was part of the reason he agreed to give Isaacson such unprecedented access to his life.)

Isaacson spent years shadowing Musk to write his book, which contains insight into his businesses, his abusive childhood, and the intricacies of his love life. Following publication, the biography made headlines for the reveal that Musk had welcomed a third child with his on-again off-again partner Grimes. Meanwhile, Isaacson also wrote how Grimes was completely unaware that Musk was having twins with his employee Shivon Zilis; at one point, pregnant Grimes and Zilis were both at the same Austin hospital at the same time while Grimes had no idea about Zilis’ condition. The situation saw Isaacson entangled in Musk’s romantic drama. After posting a picture from the book of Musk, Zilis, and the twins on Twitter/X, Grimes tweeted at the author, “Tell Shivon to unblock me and tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer. I have never even been allowed to see a photo of these children until this moment, despite the situation utterly ripping my family apart.”

Again, there’s a lot of material here available for adaptation. Plus, Musk’s story aligns with some of Aronofsky’s previous interests: a guy who may or may not be spiraling into drug use (Requiem), who is obsessed with his own success possibly to the point of madness (Black Swan), whose kid apparently hates him (The Whale). When it comes to artist and muse, this might actually be a perfect fit.