Director Eugene Jarecki has a Julian Assange documentary he cannot place on a streaming platform. His solution involves cryptocurrency and a former tech CEO.
The film, titled The Six Billion Dollar Man, will be released directly to the global Bitcoin community through a pre-theatrical digital distribution model developed with Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter and current head of Block, Inc. Jarecki told Variety that streamers “were never going to touch” the project.
Dorsey, a prominent Bitcoin advocate, helped architect the release mechanism. The specific financial terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed in filings or public statements as of publication.
The move puts Jarecki outside every conventional distribution lane simultaneously — no Netflix, no Amazon, no Apple, no theatrical booker holding the calendar. The Bitcoin community serves as both the payment rail and the initial audience.
The title references a figure of six billion dollars. The subject is a man who spent five years in Belmarsh Prison. Neither detail appeared to be the sticking point for the streamers.