Alex Gibney in the process of making ‘unvarnished’ Elon Musk documentary

Oscar-winning film-maker Alex Gibney has announced that he is in the process of making a documentary about Elon Musk.

The documentarian behind films such as Taxi to the Dark Side and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is months into the making of Musk, “a definitive and unvarnished examination” of the provocative tech entrepreneur.

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

The film has been described as “a rigorous portrait” of the Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX CEO that will “take on the challenge of examining” him and the impact he has on the world.

Gibney’s documentaries have also taken a hard look at everything from the cult of Scientology to the Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos scandal. His upcoming slate includes Apple TV two-parter Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker and a producer credit on Return to Timbuktu, a film about the return of musicians to Mali after the conflict.

Recent documentaries about Musk have come from the New York Times Presents at FX, called Elon Musk’s Crash Course, and the Oscar-winning film-makers behind Free Solo whose Netflix docuseries Return to Space looked at SpaceX. The latter was criticised as something that could be “easily repurposed as promotional material” by Jeannette Catsoulis at the New York Times.

Musk recently reclaimed his position as the world’s richest man after Tesla’s stock price rose to boost his net worth by nearly $7bn to $187bn. He has recently come under fire for firing yet more employees at Twitter and defending racist statements made by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams.