Every now and then, you come across a story so bizarre that it's difficult to believe, even for Hollywood.
Case in point, the divorce proceedings for director Carl Erik Rinsch have revealed some outlandish accounting practices that occurred during the 47 Ronin director's development of a high-concept sci-fi series for Netflix, titled Conquest.
The series was said to be inspired by Rinsch's 2010 short film, The Gift, a project that first put him on the map. To develop the concept, Netflix gave Rinsch $55 million dollars in 2018, for a 13-episode first season. In a highly competitive auction, Netflix swooped in to outbid Amazon, Hulu, HBO, Apple, and YouTube for the series.
However, during the development of the series, the cast and crew stated that Rinsch's behavior grew erratic.
And financial records brought forth during Rinsch's divorce proceedings reveal that he lost almost $11 million of the show's production budget in the stock market. He then pumped $4 million into Dogecoin during cryptocurrency's surge and turned that amount into roughly $30 million. However, he then spent a big chunk of his financial gain on sports cars (including a fleet of Rolls Royce- 5 to be exact, and a Ferrari), designer clothing, and furniture.
Rinsch's initial investment in the stock market of $11 million and the $4 million he used to fund his cryptocurrency windfall remain unaccounted for, as he never gave the money back to Netflix. It's bizarre that Risch didn't use $15 million of the $30 million he made off Dogecoin to pay back the streamer.
You can check out The Gift below. It's easy to see why Amazon, Netflix, and others were aggressively bidding on the project. Conquest was reportedly a high sci-fi concept series, " about a genius who invents a humanlike species called the Organic Intelligent. The O.I. are deployed to trouble spots around the globe to provide humanitarian aid, but humans eventually discover their true nature and turn against them. Mr. Rinsch called the show "White Horse," a reference to the first horseman of the apocalypse."
Amazon actually had a handshake deal in place to secure the rights to the project before Netflix made a last-minute offer that reportedly doubled what Amazon was willing to pay. The streamer was said to be convinced that they had the next Stranger Things in their possession.
The project began shooting in various international locales including São Paulo, Brazil, Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Budapest. However, amid reports of a trouble production and Rinsch's erratic behavior, it seems the director told Netflix that he was having trouble deciding between a shooting schedule that aligned with the show's original 13-episode order or one that would require 26 episodes to complete - essentially requiring a second season to be greenlit.
Rinsch's estranged wife, Gabriela Rosés Bentancor, produced text messages from him during divorce proceedings in which the director claimed to be able to anticipate lightning strikes and volcano eruptions, indicating that the stress of the production and the ongoing coronavirus outbreak were affecting his mental state.
In March 2021, Netflix informed Rinsch that they would no longer be moving forward with Conquest. Rinsch and Netflix are now embroiled in a bitter court struggle over who owes the other $14 million. This month, the matter was heard before an arbitrator, and a decision is expected soon.