Director ‘gambled $11 million of Netflix's money on stocks and crypto’

A director working on a Netflix series reportedly gambled millions of dollars of stocks and crypto, as well as buying luxury cars and designer clothing.

As The New York Times reports, Netflix is now involved in confidential arbitration proceedings against filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch after the TV series was eventually scrapped.

The greenlit series was a sci-fi show called Conquest and it had a budget of $55 million with plans for 13 episodes to be made. However, the series was written off without an episode being produced.

Thomas Cherian, a spokesperson for Netflix, gave a statement on the investigation the publication, saying that “while the company provided funding and support for Rinsch’s series, after a lot of time and effort, it became clear that Mr. Rinsch was never going to complete the project he agreed to make, and so we wrote the project off”.

Rinsch and Netflix are currently involved in confidential arbitration proceedingsJohn Sciulli/Getty Images for Team One, Saatchi LA

Rinsch’s only feature film credit to date came in 2013 when he directed the film 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves.

By March 2020, Netflix had spent $44.3 million on the series, but Rinsch told them that the project needed more money and a further $11 million was sent to the production company.

Rinsch reportedly initiated the arbitration and says that the streaming platform owes him $14 million in damages for breach of contract.

Rinsch did not answer The New York Times request for comment.

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