Keanu Reeves is back in the news after writing a letter to a federal judge seeking leniency for Carl Rinsch, the filmmaker recently convicted of defrauding Netflix of millions tied to an unfinished sci-fi series.
According to newly filed court documents ahead of Rinsch’s June 29 sentencing hearing, which were obtained by Business Insider, Reeves described the director as a talented but troubled creative who tends to “self-sabotage” by pushing agreements beyond their limits. “I am, of course, not a therapist or psychologist,” Reeves wrote to Judge Jed Rakoff. “I write instead as an artistic peer of Carl’s, and as a friend.”
The letter immediately reignited public conversation around the bizarre rise-and-fall story that has followed Rinsch for years. Prosecutors accused the director of taking $11 million from Netflix to finish his long-delayed sci-fi project White Horse—later retitled Conquest—before allegedly diverting much of the money into stock trades, cryptocurrency investments, luxury purchases, and personal expenses.
Trial testimony and court filings detailed purchases that included Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, hundreds of food deliveries, and a handmade Swedish Hästens mattress reportedly worth nearly $439,000.
Reeves’ involvement in the story stretches back more than a decade. The actor starred in Rinsch’s 2013 fantasy film 47 Ronin, which remains the director’s only completed feature film.
Despite the movie’s disappointing box-office performance, Reeves continued to support Rinsch creatively and personally. During the fraud trial, a former Netflix executive testified that White Horse was greenlit after she reviewed the script at Reeves’ home.
“In my opinion, Carl is an exceptional artist and ‘White Horse,’ in the form in which I saw it, was a superb and visionary work of art, although unfinished,” Reeves wrote in the sentencing submission.
He also described Rinsch as someone capable of bringing “creative inspiration” and “exceptional joy and warmth” to those around him.
Rinsch was convicted in December after prosecutors argued he misled Netflix executives while production on White Horse spiraled out of control.
The streaming giant had already invested more than $44 million into the ambitious dystopian series before wiring an additional $11 million in 2020 to stabilize the project during mounting production issues and pandemic-related complications.
No completed episodes were ever delivered.
Rinsch has maintained that Netflix abandoned the project prematurely and, during the trial, argued that much of the disputed money was intended to reimburse production costs.
His legal team is now pushing for a sentence without prison time, citing what supporters described in letters to the court as a “period of severe psychological instability” and a “break from reality” during the production process.
Meanwhile, Netflix is still seeking nearly $15 million from Rinsch, including restitution and legal fees connected to both the criminal case and earlier civil proceedings. Federal prosecutors are expected to submit their sentencing recommendation in June.
