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The Strange $55 Million Saga of a Netflix Series You'll Never See 48

Posted by msmash from the bizarro-world dept.
In 2018, director Carl Rinsch was courted by multiple studios due to high demand for content, despite his first film being a flop. He pitched a sci-fi series about artificial humans providing aid worldwide, but who are eventually rejected by humans. After a bidding war, Netflix signed an $61 million deal for the unnamed project, giving Rinsch final cut privilege and rights to future seasons - highly unusual moves.

Soon after, Rinsch's behavior grew concerning as he claimed to discover COVID's transmission and predict lightning, and he gambled away millions from Netflix on stocks and crypto, The New York Times reported Wednesday. His wife Gabriela Roses worried about his amphetamine use and tried intervening, but he refused rehab. In 2020, Netflix gave Rinsch another $11 million, which he also lost much of on risky bets.

By mid-2021, Roses informed Netflix executives about Rinsch's state and filed for divorce, the Times reported. Netflix consulted police about Rinsch's behavior before deciding to stop funding the project in March 2021, though he could shop it elsewhere. Rinsch made $27 million on crypto bets, which he used to buy Rolls-Royces and luxury items. He claims Netflix owes him $14 million more, while Netflix says he never delivered the project milestones to receive additional funding. The confidential arbitration case over the contract dispute concluded this month.
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The Strange $55 Million Saga of a Netflix Series You'll Never See More

The Strange $55 Million Saga of a Netflix Series You'll Never See

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  • How to Get Rich. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @11:32AM (#64024195)

    An outlandish concept from a failed director high on drugs results in a fucking bidding war that dumps millions in his pocket? Where the FUCK do the rest of us sign up for that deal?

    And some would argue that the .bomb was tech's low point...hold my bitcoin...

    • Re:How to Get Rich. (Score:5, Funny)

      by jslaff ( 881873 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @11:53AM (#64024253)
      I want to see a movie based on this movie.
    • Step one: get high on drugs
      Step two: get exactly the right amount of braindamage in exactly the right place
      Step three: let the beast go all the way*
      * Having connections may help.
    • An outlandish concept bought and paid for without any materials to back up the claim and nothing else but failure. Either Netflix has way too much money or way too many imbeciles.
      • Not really, I mean yes his previous film flopped but #1 he made a previous film and #2 it starred Keanu Reeves and #3 flopped as in made less money than it cost to make but it still made $151M so not exactly cat shit. Apparently he also have made a few music videos and ads that where are highly rated. So there are _some_ to back it up.

        • Not really, I mean yes his previous film flopped but #1 he made a previous film and #2 it starred Keanu Reeves and #3 flopped as in made less money than it cost to make but it still made $151M so not exactly cat shit. Apparently he also have made a few music videos and ads that where are highly rated. So there are _some_ to back it up.

          Also pretty easy to do with a big marketing campaign. I mean The Marvels [wikipedia.org] is getting trashed and it's almost made its budget back with less than a month in theatres (and I never even saw an ad for it).

          Of course, you still need to be a competent director to direct a big budget film, I suspect a lot of good budget directors wouldn't be able to handle the complexity of a production like that.

          $55m isn't huge for a streaming series and getting a competent director to make it isn't a bad idea.

          The bad idea was givi

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by JBMcB ( 73720 )

            The Marvels is getting trashed and it's almost made its budget back with less than a month in theatres (and I never even saw an ad for it).

            The Marvels isn't even close to making it's money back. Box office gets split between the studio and the theaters, so $180 million in box office revenue is only $90 million in profit for the studio. Also, there's usually a $100 million dollar ad campaign on top of the movie budget, so The Marvels will probably have to clear somewhere around $600 million in box office proceeds to break even.

      • I would like to sell them this painting of dogs smoking cigars at a board meeting, but the guy already bought a couple cars over a concept of a sci-fi film

    • His dad was an insurance executive and he was dating Riddley Scott's daughter. Nepo baby. Hollywood's full of 'em. Honestly *everywhere* is full of them. You're not supposed to talk about it though.

      • His dad was an insurance executive and he was dating Riddley Scott's daughter. Nepo baby. Hollywood's full of 'em. Honestly *everywhere* is full of them. You're not supposed to talk about it though.

        Not supposed to talk about what exactly? That some Oscar-winning esteemed brothers daughters dog-walker, just might not gather Oscar-winning talent, simply because they pick up 'celebrity' dogshit for a living?

        Apparently Hollywood nepotism is another term for fucking stupid rich. With an emphasis on fucking stupid.

    • Sounds more like an old fashioned brain-circuitry-fault, than drugs. I’ve seen it happen personally. When your pancreas goes bad, you get diabetes. Kidneys go bad, you need dialysis or a transplant. The brain isn’t much different except the symptoms are behavioral. And being famous is no insurance policy. Even if he gets treatment, his career is probably over.

    • You just have to have the balls to pull it off.

  • He proved to be a master charlatan. I'll only be impressed if he can do it again.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      Arguably, it is his second time around ... at pitching a failed movie at least. And this time he stopped at collecting the money ... probably because he'd worked out during the first one that he could go back for seconds without lifting a finger.

    • Maybe he'll run for President of the United States. He seems to have what it takes these days.
      • He raised the money before spending it. Politicians do the opposite while completely ignoring the raise part.

  • Not the only one making risky bets (Score:4, Funny)

    by suso ( 153703 ) * on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @12:09PM (#64024303) Journal

    Sounds like Netflix made some risky bets too.

  • I don't know how this guy isn't in jail for fraud. I mean, wasn't there any contractual language that said that the money needed to be spent on filming activities, rather than metaphorical hookers and blow?

    I mean, how do you spend and lose millions on crypto that was meant for delivering a filmed shitty sci-fi show that nobody actually wants to see, and not get sued by the investor who didn't get their shitty sci-fi show, or at least referred for criminal prosecution for fraud?

    • I mean, wasn't there any contractual language that said that the money needed to be spent on filming activities, rather than metaphorical hookers and blow?

      See, that's the problem. Legally speaking, in Hollywood it is almost impossible to distinguish between "production expenses" and "hookers and blow." They've tried to do this in the past and it shut down every Robert Downey Jr. movie even being considered for green-lighting, including those already in production.

      Now, if you spent the money on, say, donating to a children's hospital ... yeah you're fucked six ways to Sunday. If your film isn't a Hollywood production but any other business that exists... same

  • We're all REALLY wondering what happened to the almost done, basically ready for release Magic the Gathering show that was hyped up and delayed then quietly cancelled.

  • Ministry did something like this with the label, collecting money to record an album, spending all of it in drugs and then asking for even more money to complete it: https://metalinjection.net/sho... [metalinjection.net]

    Well, at least in this case they delivered the record in the end.

    • I think that's par for the course in the music industry.

      If you watch the Beastie Boys doc on AppleTV with objectivity, you'll see they persuaded Capitol Records to fund them living in a Hollywood mansion while they partied instead of creating the follow-up to Licensed to Ill. This was a big gamble on Capitol's part because the Beastie Boys were forging their own way without Rick Rubin to produce the music. Eventually, Adam Yauch found the Dust Brothers and they had an album ready-to-go on their own and Ya

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mckwant ( 65143 )

        The business model in that anecdote is as dated as Licensed to Ill.

        I suspect, anyway.

  • "After a bidding war, Netflix signed an $61 million deal for the unnamed project, giving Rinsch final cut privilege and rights to future seasons - highly unusual moves."

    That 'deal' sounds like, "Give me a SHITLOAD of money, no oversight whatsoever, and I'll call you later."

  • If you can get it...

  • "I could eat raw film stock and shit a better movie."

    Honestly, I'll bet a lot of people could have made some good stuff with half that amount of money. One has to wonder just how he was able to blow that much smoke up Netflix's ass. One also has to wonder why nobody at Netflix got fired over this.

  • Replace artificial humans with mutants and you get Marvel's X-Men.

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