In case you didn’t know this wild story, director Carl Rinsch was recently indicted for allegedly defrauding Netflix out of $11M. The money was part of a $61M deal the streamer struck with him in 2019 after winning a bidding war for his sci-fi project “Conquest,” which was never made. If convicted, Rinsch could spend the rest of his life in prison.
During pre-production, red flags emerged when Rinsch began sending strange emails claiming he had discovered Covid-19’s “secret transmission mechanism” and could “predict lightning strikes.” Instead of making the show, he allegedly spent Netflix’s money on crypto, five Rolls-Royces, luxury goods, and divorce lawyers. Once the shoot finally began, his behavior reportedly grew even more erratic, including drug misuse, punching walls, and accusing his wife of plotting to assassinate him.
I was wondering how, with a court date set for December 2, Rinsch and his lawyers could possibly get out of this jam. Honestly, I didn’t expect this to be their argument for his innocence…
Attorneys for Rinsch are preparing to argue that he was experiencing a “state of psychosis” during the making of “Conquest” and therefore lacked the capacity to intentionally defraud Netflix of $11M.
In a court filing submitted Monday, Rinsch’s legal team revealed plans to call psychiatrist Dr. John Mariani as a witness. They claim his testimony will demonstrate that Rinsch was not mentally capable of forming the intent necessary to commit fraud.
That’s right, Rinsch’s excuse is: “Sorry, I was temporarily insane when I blew $60 million.” His lawyers want us to believe he was in such a deep “state of psychosis” that he couldn’t possibly have formed criminal intent—though somehow he was lucid enough to go car shopping, play the crypto markets, buy high-end mattresses, and juggle an expensive divorce all at the same time.
Can we please get a six-episode Netflix true-crime doc about this man?
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.