Steven Soderbergh, left, producer of "The Report," with cast member Adam Driver attends the premiere of the film during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --
Vice Studios has announced that Amazon Studios has acquired the worldwide rights to the CIA torture investigation film "The Report."
Vice produced the film and made the announcement Monday following an all-night bidding war for the buzzy political film.
"The Report" stars Adam Driver as senate staffer Daniel Jones, who investigates the CIA's detention and interrogation program.
Annette Bening plays Senator Dianne Feinstein in the long gestating film from writer-director Scott Z. Burns that received rave reviews at the festival. It was purchased for around $14 million.
Amazon plans to release "The Report" in theaters in the fall for an awards push.
It's the second major acquisition for the studio, which also picked up Mindy Kaling's talk show host comedy "Late Night" for $13 million.
Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.
Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.
"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.
His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.
Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.
"Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More
