He didn’t get a visionary Netflix series. But at least he got a coffee table book.
Former Netflix executive Peter Friedlander testified Tuesday about director-producer Carl Rinsch’s failure to deliver “White Horse,” which was supposed to be a futuristic sci-fi show that turned into a Hollywood debacle.
At Rinsch’s criminal trial, in a downtown Manhattan federal courtroom, Friedlander told the jury about being “blown away” by early footage of Rinsch’s series before finding himself chasing the director for updates. Freidlander, who oversaw the development of shows like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black,” described “unproductive” efforts to obtain status updates with Rinsch leaving some meetings before they concluded.
Rinsch didn’t complete a single episode of the show. Prosecutors have accused him of fraud and money laundering, saying he defrauded Netflix of $11 million by using production funds for things like Rolls-Royces, cryptocurrency bets, divorce legal fees, and luxurious mattresses.
Rinsch’s attorneys have cast the situation as a “contract dispute” — not a fraud. In an opening statement Tuesday morning, Rinsch’s attorney Michael Arthus said Rinsch was a “creative genius” who was overwhelmed by his triple-hyphenate role as a director, writer, and producer on the project and floundered without sufficient support from Netflix on the project.
According to Friedlander, in a bizarre May 2020 meeting at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons hotel, Rinsch provided him and another Netflix executive with one thing he did create: A coffee table book.
The book included “high-gloss” behind-the-scenes photos from the months of filming that had taken place for “White Horse” in 2019, which never continued, Friedlander said.
“In his head, it would impress us,” said Friedlander told the jury.
‘Budgets have exploded’
Freidlander, who left Netflix for a role at Amazon MGM Studios in September, said he decided to acquire “White Horse” for Netflix in 2018 after seeing footage that Rinsch had produced on his own.
Jurors saw a preliminary trailer for “White Horse” that depicted a futuristic world where artificial human-like beings create their own society after a schism with humankind. Friedlander said he was “truly blown away” by the “visionary” footage.
“The visuals were something that I had never seen before,” he said.
Filming began in 2019. Rinsch had huge ambitions for the shoot, planning to film scenes in Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay.
Friedlander said he was concerned early on that Rinsch had not appeared to hire a line producer — usually a crucial role to handle the complicated logistics of filming scenes in so many different countries.
“It was troubling, because I knew how difficult it was to organize these international shoots,” Friedlander said.
In September of that year, while “White Horse” was filming in Budapest, Rinsch emailed Friedlander telling him that the “budgets have exploded.”
Rinsch suggested that either he deliver only half the number of episodes he promised, or that Netflix provide more money to continue filming at the same rate.
Friedlander found the email alarming, he testified. He said he needed to “go under the hood” to understand why the project’s costs were ballooning far beyond what Netflix expected.
As Friedlander walked the jury through his version of events, the lanky-haired Rinsch, dressed in a blue suit, fidgeted with his tie and shirt buttons and scribbled in his yellow notepad. At times, he leaned forward in his seat, appearing to pay close attention to Friedlander’s telling of the development of “White Horse.” When US District Judge Jed Rakoff cracked a joke, he laughed loudly.
Friedlander and another executive flew to Budapest and met with Rinsch on October 11, 2019. Friedlander said he visited the set and watched footage that Rinsch had shot earlier in Brazil and Uruguay.
But Friedlander said he didn’t get the information he needed from Rinsch about the cost overruns, and that Rinsch walked out.
“He left when the meeting was not over,” Friedlander said.
Friedlander said a meeting with Rinsch the following morning was similarly “unproductive,” and that the director walked out yet again.
Shooting in Budapest wrapped up in November of 2019, but “there was no plan” to continue filming “White Horse” in other countries, Friedlander said.
Over the next few months, Rinsch and Netflix executives hashed out a plan to keep the project alive, according to emails introduced as trial evidence.
They struck an agreement in late February of 2020, where Netflix would send $11 million to Rinsch’s production company, and Rinsch would deliver the rest of “White Horse,” using the money for filming, overhead, storyboarding, and other production costs.
Every week, Rinsch would provide Netflix with a working “assembly” — an unpolished draft of the show with raw footage — according to an email exchange between Netflix executives and Rinsch and his attorney that was entered into trial evidence.
Soon afterward, the coronavirus pandemic shut down any chances of filming resuming. But Rinsch emailed Friedlander, telling him he continued working on the project.
After seeing the coffee-table book, in May, Friedlander said he hadn’t seen any signs of progress. Netflix wrote down the costs of the production in the fourth quarter of 2020, he said.