More details have emerged from one of the most bizarre industry cases in years: Netflix, director Carl Rinsch, and the $55m sci-fi show that never was.
In 2018, Netflix signed a deal worth some $55m in return for what it hoped would be another hit series on the scale of Stranger Things. The sci-fi show never emerged; instead, the streaming giant is now trying to track down some luxurious mattresses in the hope of regaining some of the money it’s lost.
That, at any rate, is what is alleged to have happened, as revealed in an ongoing court case between Netflix and filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch. Word of the abortive production on Rinsch’s would-be series first emerged in 2023, but it’s only in recent months, following the director’s arrest on the 18th March, that more details have come to light.
A director of commercials and a protégé of Ridley Scott, Rinsch made his feature debut in 2013 with 47 Ronin, a martial arts fantasy starring Keanu Reeves. It was an infamous commercial failure, and Rinsch is said to have clashed with producer Scott Stuber to the extent that Rinsch was ushered out of the editing room. In the aftermath, Rinsch made ads and, together with his then-wife Gabriela Rosés Bentancor, worked on a series of short sci-fi films called White Horse, about a war between humans and artificial, humanoid species called the Organic Intelligent.
The series had a number of production problems itself, but was deemed commercial enough that multiple companies were bidding to buy it and turn it into a series. Netflix won the deal at the last minute, lavishing Rinsch with a huge budget and a contract that gave him creative freedom, right down to final cut.
A deal was hashed out in November 2018, with a budget of $44.3m to be paid out to the production in instalments. The show was re-titled Conquest, and filming began in Brazil, Uruguay and Budapest.
By March 2020, the pandemic was swirling, and millions had already been spent on the series. Rinsch, whose behaviour was reportedly erratic even before Covid-19 struck, hadn’t completed a script (despite chunks of the show being filmed), but was demanding more cash to get his series finished.
According to a court filing, Netflix therefore wired $11m to Rinsch. That money was then allegedly moved to other accounts, including one named the Carl Erik Rinsch Trust. As much as $10.5m was then – again, allegedly – put towards risky investments which didn’t pan out (it’s said Rinsch lost $5.9m on betting the stock market would fall, which it didn’t).
By the end of 2020, Rinsch’s wife had filed for divorce, while Netflix, realising it wasn’t going to get its sci-fi show, decided to write off its $55m investment.
“After a lot of time and effort, it became clear that Mr Rinsch was never going to complete the project he agreed to make, Netflix spokesman Thomas Cherian, told The New York Times, “and so we wrote the project off.”
Rinsch is said to have taken Netflix’s decision angrily, and wrote emails to the company expressing as much.
It’s then further alleged that Rinsch speculated a small fortune on cryptocurrency, “which proved profitable,” according to court documents. According to additional information uncovered by Variety, Rinsch’s Kraken account contained a balance of $26.7m worth of Dogecoin in May 2021.
It was around this time that Rinsch is said to have gone on something of a spending spree. According to details we’ve gleaned from Variety and the above-mentioned court filing, the filmmaker’s purchases included the following:
- $1.8m on credit card bills
- $1m on lawyers
- $395,000 to stay in luxury flats and hotels
- $3.787m on furniture and antiques, which includes:
- $439,000 on a black Hastens Grand Vividus mattress
- $210,400 on a white Hastens Grand Vividus mattress
- $48,000 on an Art Deco desk and cabinet designed by Jacques Ardnet
- $28,000 sofa and armchair suite
- $295,000 on luxury bedding and sheets
- $2.417m on five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari
- $652,000 on watches and clothes, including a $387,630 Vacheron Constantin watch
Other details emerging from the case are equally bizarre. Rinsch ordered the custom mattresses, said to be around seven feet square, and then appeared to have a falling out with the supplier. He complained that one mattress was too short, and then sued the company over “ethical concerns” over the “provenance of horsehair materials.” The case was eventually thrown out by a judge.
When Netflix decided to pull the plug on Conquest, Rinsch began an arbitration case against the company, arguing that it was in breach of contract and owed him “at least $14m in damages.”
It was in that arbitration, which began in 2023, that the director’s unusual expenditure came to light. Rinsch is said to have suggested that the luxury goods were going to be used as props for Conquest’s production – though the arbitrator in the case questioned whether it was necessary to spend quite so much on items that could barely be seen even on Rinsch’s own storyboards.
The court eventually ruled in Netflix’s favour, and Rinsch now owes the company $11.8m. In the interim, the filmmaker’s financial position is said to have dwindled rapidly – “There is no money,” he told a judge in 2023.
It’s surely one of the most bizarre entertainment industry cases of recent years, and is still ongoing: following his March arrest, Rinsch is due to appear in a New York court on the 3rd April. He’s accused of wire fraud and money laundering, among other things – and if he’s found guilty, he could face decades in prison.
In the meantime, Netflix is “attempting to locate assets it may be able to seize” in the hope of recouping the $11.8m the court says it’s owed. If it can find them, the streaming firm could soon come into possession of, among other things, some particularly fancy mattresses.
The case and whole saga continues.
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