Pete Davidson and Casey Affleck have been cast in leading roles in “Killing Satoshi,” a biographical conspiracy thriller about Bitcoin and its elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, directed by Doug Liman from a script by Nick Schenk. The project, announced in August 2025, is framed as a high‑stakes story in which unlikely antiheroes confront some of the most powerful interests in global finance, weaving political intrigue, high‑tech espionage and a race against time over who controls money and the future of the monetary system. The film is being independently produced, with crypto and gambling entrepreneur Calvin Ayre—portrayed in the film by Davidson—providing a significant share of the financing. Beyond its subject matter, “Killing Satoshi” is drawing attention for its extensive planned use of artificial intelligence in production, which has already sparked industry debate. According to casting and production notices, actors will work on a markerless performance‑capture stage rather than on traditional locations, with all environments and backgrounds to be generated using AI tools in post‑production. Producers have also reserved contractual rights to use generative AI and machine learning to “change, add to, take from, translate, reformat or reprocess” captured performances—such as adjusting facial and body movements—while pledging not to create recognizable digital replicas without written consent. Positioning itself as a kind of “Social Network of Bitcoin,” the film aims both to dramatize one of the central mysteries of the crypto era and to serve as a test case for how far AI‑assisted filmmaking can go within emerging union and ethical boundaries.

AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

Explore the topic

Loading related coverage…

Explore the full feed

Comments

Loading comments…