Who Do You Think Should Play Elon Musk in Upcoming Biopic?

An Elon Musk biopic is the works, Variety reports, with Darren Aronofsky set to direct the first major cinematic look at the enigmatic and controversial Tesla and SpaceX CEO in an A24 production.

The biopic will be based closely on Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography, which was released late this summer. Isaacson is also known for penning a biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Variety notes, that was made into a 2015 film that starred Michael Fassbender in the title role.

Aronofsky—who has a weighty, if not lengthy, list of directing credits to his name stretching back to the late 1990s—first broke through with 2000's Requiem for a Dream, which he followed up with The Fountain in 2006. Aronofsky is also known for Black Swan, which starred Natalie Portman, and most recently for The Whale, which rebooted the acting career of Brandon Fraser, who was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor.

Aronofsky's projects often focus on a central figure, making the Elon Musk biopic a logical choice for him.

Naturally, the biggest question of the upcoming Musk biopic is who can actually portray Elon Musk convincingly?

Inevitably, the two major precedents for Silicon Valley biopics are The Social Network, which starred Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, and Fassbender as Jobs.

What these two films had in common is that both employed big stars as part of their success formula.

Eisenberg was an easy choice for Zuckerberg, but there may not that many obvious choices for who can portray a younger and an older Musk, and a well-known veteran actor may not necessarily be the best pick for a role of this type.

One way of looking at such a project is that some actor will inevitably be tasked with imitating Elon Musk's accent for two hours, without making the film a straight up impersonation.

If we could pick a big name actor for the main role, Guy Pearce would be our top choice, having plenty of experience in complex roles, as well as roles demanding nuanced foreign accents.

A veteran actor with a long list of credits in his native Australia and in Hollywood, with L.A. Confidential and Memento often cited as his breakout films, Pearce has the physical resemblance to portray an older Elon Musk, and could perhaps be digitally de-aged convincingly to play a younger Musk in the 1990s.

But we don't really have a second choice for the main role.

Who could portray Elon Musk convincingly in the upcoming film, in your opinion? Let us know your pick in the comments below.