In brief
- Jennifer Garner will star in “One Attempt Remaining,” a Netflix comedy about a divorced couple racing to recover the password to a now-valuable crypto stash.
- The film, directed by Kay Cannon, follows the pair as they retrace a wild cruise night with only three days left before their wallet expires.
- The plot of “One Attempt Remaining” mirrors several real-life occurrences where crypto holders have lost fortunes due to misplaced or deleted private keys.
Streaming giant Netflix has greenlit a comedy that hits uncomfortably close to home for anyone who’s ever lost access to digital assets: an ex-couple racing against time to recover the password to their crypto wallet.
Golden Globe award-winning actress Jennifer Garner is set to star in “One Attempt Remaining,” an upcoming crypto-related comedy directed by Kay Cannon, according to a statement released by Netflix on Thursday.
“Years after their acrimonious divorce, an ex-couple learns that the cryptocurrency they won on a crazy night on a cruise is now worth millions, but they’ve forgotten the password needed to access the funds,” Netflix said in the statement.
“With only three days left until the account expires, they must retrace their steps that night, not just to figure out the password to their fortune, but also to rediscover why they fell in love in the first place,” the platform added.
The actress, who rose to fame as a TV action star in “Alias” before pivoting to romantic comedy features like “13 Going on 30” and ensemble dramas like “Juno,” has already headlined several Netflix originals, including “Yes Day,” “The Adam Project,” and “Family Switch.”
Garner will also produce the feature alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Levine for 21 Laps, and Nicole King for Linden Productions, with a release date yet to be announced.
Real-world problem meets rom-com
The film’s premise mirrors a genuine crisis in the crypto world, where lost or forgotten passwords and private keys have permanently locked people out of fortunes worth millions.
They include ex-Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas, who lost the password to an IronKey device with the private key for a wallet containing 7,002 BTC (now worth $645 million) and James Howells, who mistakenly binned a hard drive with the private key for 8,000 BTC (now worth around $738 million). Howells’ own tale of woe is headed for the screen, after a U.S. production company acquired the rights to his story.
“Most people often have a hunch what their password might be, but they can’t quite put their finger on it,” Niels Zondervan, founder of Wallet Recovery NL, told Decrypt in 2021, in a report on lost Bitcoin passwords.
Netflix’s crypto week
The announcement arrives on the same day Netflix saw a far less amusing crypto story make headlines.
“41 Ronin” director Carl Rinsch was found guilty Thursday of defrauding Netflix and using $11 million in misappropriated funds to buy crypto and luxury goods.
Rinsch was found guilty on one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering, and five counts of transacting with illicitly obtained property, facing up to 90 years in prison, and will be sentenced on April 17, 2026.
He was commissioned by Netflix in 2018 to produce sci-fi series “Conquest” with $44 million in funding, but prosecutors alleged he siphoned an additional $11 million through bank accounts and invested it in securities and crypto.
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