Australian audiences face an uncertain wait for the scathing four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, with its international distributor reportedly getting “cold feet”.

According to The Hollywood Reporter this week, Comcast-owned Universal Pictures, which holds distribution rights to Musk outside North America, may be having second thoughts about releasing the movie.

“The company has not dated the movie, has not communicated with the filmmaking team about its plans, and generally appears to be rethinking the release of a project that it once showed high enthusiasm for, but is now politically sensitive for parts of the Trump administration,” The Hollywood Reporter said.

Two sources told the publication that they wouldn’t be surprised if Universal decided not to release the movie and returned its distribution rights to filmmakers, even though doing so would require it to pay a kill fee.

Musk is the work of filmmaker Alex Gibney, who secured access to various figures close to the Tesla owner in his personal life, as well as those who comment on his political influence.

The movie premiered to acclaim at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

In a thread on X, which Musk owns, former Wall Street Journal and NBC News journalist Matt Rivera recounted watching the documentary at Venice, where it received a five-minute ovation.

Among the bombshells revealed in Musk, Rivera recounted purported claims by Musk’s former partner Ashley St Clair that the trillionaire knew the 2024 US presidential election result hours before it was made official due to “lasers in space”.

St Clair also says Musk told her in a text message that he wanted to have a child with her because he needed to have “a legion of children before the civil war”.

The movie also includes Musk’s reaction to the Wall Street Journal‘s reporting of his alleged drug use, and discussion of the non-disclosure agreement St Clair says she was asked to sign after giving birth to one of Musk’s 14 known children.

Influencer and political commentator St Clair features prominently. Photo: AAP

Other former partners and Musk family members also feature in the documentary, though Musk himself declined to take part.

In the absence of Musk, the documentary includes re-enactments of his public comments made by a CGI replacement.

Musk recently described the movie as a “hit piece that misses” and “a false film” in a string of social media posts.

Rivera, however, maintains Musk is not a “hit job”.

“At times, it bends over backward to be fair. But it pierces Musk’s mythos, playing some stories twice to expose contradictions and posing open questions: What’s with all the kids? What is he doing with all that data?” he says.

Even if Comcast/Universal were to drop distribution of Musk, The Hollywood Reporter said it was unlikely the film would be without an international distributor for long.

“Distributors in individual countries have been salivating over the film ever since the four-hour project began gaining buzz in recent weeks,” it reported.

Independent film company Bleecker Street, meanwhile, is moving up the US theatrical release of Musk to October 9 in response to intense interest in the documentary.

Universal dropping Musk would not be the first recent example of a distributor dropping a documentary that could make for uncomfortable viewing.

Amazon in July walked away from Artificial  – a documentary about Open AI CEO Sam Altman – days after signing a US$50 billion ($70 billion) deal with OpenAI.

Musk was also featured in Artificial, which will now be released by indie distributor Neon later this year.