Elon Musk says upcoming documentary about him is ‘a hit piece’

Elon Musk has responded to the news that Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney is working on a new documentary about him.

The director announced the film, which will be titled Musk, on Monday (6 February), calling it a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of the multi-billionaire tech entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter.

Replying to a tweet about the news on Tuesday, Musk wrote simply: “It’s a hit piece.”

Gibney said in a statement: “I have been working on this film, off and on, for some time and am hugely excited about it. I am delighted by this extraordinary group who are working with me. Onward!”

The Independent has contacted Musk and Gibney for further comment.

One of the film’s producers, Closer Media founder Zhang Xin, said: “Now is the moment for a rigorous portrait of Elon Musk, who is undeniably one of the most influential figures of our time.

Gibney won an Academy Award for his 2007 film Taxi to the Dark Side, which centred on the December 2002 killing of an Afghan driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base.

He has also made the documentaries Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine.

Gibney’s Musk comes after the BBC docuseries The Elon Musk Show aired last year. The series included interviews with the controversial businessman’s family, friends and employees. Read The Independent’s three-star review here.

Musk does not yet have a release date.