EXCLUSIVE: We told you earlier this week that Mark Wahlberg and his unrealistic ideas were in early development on a documentary about USC football player-turned-drug addict Owen Hanson, who was arrested by the FBI in 2015 and convicted in 2017 of running an empire that spanned the U.S. , Latin America and Australia.
Now, Deadline has learned that Netflix has also been working on a documentary featuring the feds who took down Hanson. Former Netflix documentarian John Turner (now Head of Imax Documentation) is behind it with Greg Whiteley. Their documentation we hear focuses on the Phantom Secure phone that was involved in the capture of Hanson.
Hanson began dealing recreational drugs and steroids to college teammates during the early 2000s, eventually building a violent empire. Sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison, Hanson was ordered to pay $5 million in punitive damages, which included $100,000 in gold coins, luxury vehicles, jewelry, vacation homes, a sailboat and interests in several businesses.
Key to Hanson’s capture by the feds was professional gambler R.J. Cipriani aka Robin Hood 702. Hanson gave him $2.5 million to gamble with and pay him back in the form of a casino check. But Cipriani lost at blackjack. In return, Hanson sent death threats to Cipriani, sending him photos of his late mother’s defaced headstone, photos of his wife along with her personal information, and a video showing beheadings.
Phantom Secure is a phone that Vincent Ramos designed and sold to criminals around the world. Hanson bought several of these phones and mistakenly gave one to the FBI undercover, who were investigating his case because Cipriani went to the FBI to uncover this drug syndicate. The Feds then had the bright idea of releasing their own encrypted phone and called it ANOM.
We understand that Cipriani refused to be part of the documentation that he believed was his story.
Turner was a development consultant at Netflix Documentary Features, where he also created the crime series Dirty Money. He is the executive producer of the recent documentary, Why Did You Kill Me?
Turner also produced the short Walk Run Cha-Cha, which was featured in the anthology series From Here to Home, which Turner produced for Davis Guggenheim’s Concordia Studio and the New York Times‘ OpDocs. He was nominated for both an Oscar and a News & Documentary Emmy after premiere at 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.
Netflix was unavailable for comment.
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