Keanu Reeves has asked a federal judge to show leniency toward Carl Rinsch, the filmmaker convicted of defrauding Netflix out of $11 million after a sci-fi project called “White Horse” was never finished. The letter, filed Tuesday night ahead of Rinsch’s June 29 sentencing hearing, came from a former collaborator who said he was writing not as a doctor or therapist, but as “an artistic peer of Carl’s, and as a friend.”
Reeves, who directed Rinsch in the 2013 movie “47 Ronin,” wrote to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff that his former colleague tends to “self-sabotage” by pushing the boundaries of negotiated agreements. He also said Rinsch is “an exceptional artist” and described “White Horse,” as he saw it, as “a superb and visionary work of art, although unfinished.”
The letter adds a striking new layer to a case that has already centered on how Rinsch spent millions the jury found were meant for production. Prosecutors said he used the money for more than 480 food deliveries from Postmates and Uber Eats, a $439,000 handmade Swedish mattress, and other luxury goods. A Manhattan federal jury convicted him after hearing that he took the money to make “White Horse” and never completed the project.
Reeves’ support matters because it came from one of the few people publicly tied to the project before the criminal case. A Netflix executive testified at trial that she greenlit “White Horse” after reading the script at Reeves’ home, and preliminary episodes and concept art were shown to the jury. Reeves and Rinsch remained friends after “47 Ronin” flopped at the box office, according to the filing.
At trial, Rinsch testified that Netflix abandoned the project after cost overruns and complications from the Covid-19 pandemic. He also said most of the $11 million was intended to reimburse him for out-of-pocket production costs. His lawyers are now asking for no prison time, while federal prosecutors are scheduled to file their own sentencing recommendation in June.
The defense filing also shows how much of the case sits outside the clean edges of a fraud verdict. Two paragraphs of Reeves’ letter are redacted without explanation, and records related to Rinsch’s health have been redacted elsewhere on the docket. Other friends who submitted letters said he went through “a period of severe psychological instability” and “a break from reality” while making “White Horse,” and Rinsch’s brother wrote that he was “no longer reasoning clearly” during that time.
Matthew Rosengart, Reeves’ lawyer, said the actor “was pleased simply as a friend and artist” to support Rinsch before sentencing. Rinsch’s own lawyer, Daniel McGuinness, said he is “deeply grateful” to Reeves and others who tried to show “a fuller picture of who he is beyond the facts of this case,” and called him “a remarkably talented man of strong character who confronted extraordinary challenges in the period leading up to these events.” Judge Rakoff will weigh the letter, the conviction and the defense plea when he decides whether Rinsch walks into sentencing facing prison time or not.
