Who would have thought that so much drama would surround Netflix releasing a good documentary about the clusterfuck known as the Fyre Festival? But here we are, with the streaming service poised to release the documentary “Fyre” on Friday, and with some surprise competition from rival Hulu, who pulled a Netflix-esque move of its own and released a competing doc (“Fyre Fraud”) a week earlier. And now, we find ourselves in the first big feud of 2019 – Fyre-gate…no, that’s terrible. Anyway, the filmmakers behind both docs are speaking up, and neither are very pleased with how things are going.
In a new report from The Ringer, Chris Smith, who directed Netflix’s upcoming “Fyre,” was asked about the surprise revelation that Hulu not only had a competing documentary, but was planning on undercutting Netflix by releasing it days sooner.
“We were aware of [the Hulu production] because we were supposed to film Billy McFarland for an interview,” Smith said. “He told us that they were offering $250,000 for an interview. He asked us if we would pay him $125,000.”
For those who haven’t read much about the Fyre Festival, here’s a quick recap: back in 2017, Billy McFarland and Ja Rule (yes, that Ja Rule) thought it would be an amazing idea to buy a deserted island (once owned by Pablo Escobar) in the Bahamas, overcharge thousands of music fans, and create the most exclusive music festival on the planet. The only problem is that McFarland didn’t know the first thing about music festivals and the whole thing went down in a glorious ball of flames.
Jenner Furst, who helmed “Fyre Fraud” with his partner Julia Willoughby Nason, was told what Smith said about his production (as well as the accusations) and replied, “That was not the amount. It was less than that. I don’t know why Chris is quoting him that way. We both made a film about the same person [Billy McFarland]. We know the person is a compulsive liar.”
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The Wrap reached out to a source that knows the real amount and said, “An individual with knowledge of the Hulu production told TheWrap that the filmmakers did pay a nominal fee to license footage from McFarland, but it was below the $250,000 that Smith claims McFarland said it was.”
Furst would go on to describe why his film is different than, presumably, Netflix’s competing doc, “We began preproducing this in July 2017 with the intent to go far beyond the headlines, to acquire all the footage we could get our hands on, and to tell the deepest, most impactful story.”
He continued, “Not just a comedy, not just ‘Look at these millennials who got caught on an island,’ but a bigger think piece about our generation that was a cautionary tale with deep implications that relate to our political system, to our current president … something far beyond just a meme quality.”
Oh, but that’s just the beginning of the sparring documentaries. Furst fought back by claiming that there’s an ethical dilemma with Netflix’s “Fyre” doc because the company that helped produce the film is actually one of the companies that was involved with the marketing of the Fyre Festival, Jerry Media.
Netflix released a statement about that subject, saying:
“We were happy to work with Jerry Media and a number of others on the film. At no time did they, or any others we worked with, request favorable coverage in our film, which would be against our ethics. We stand behind our film, believe it is an unbiased and illuminating look at what happened, and look forward to sharing it with audiences around the world.”
After all this, it would appear film fans have a real East Coast vs. West Coast feud on their hands. So, what side are you on? #TeamHulu or #TeamNetflix. One thing is for sure, both filmmakers agree that the real villain here is Billy McFarland, who probably isn’t happy to have two new documentaries that show what a complete a-hole he (allegedly) is.
Here are the trailers for the two docs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljkaq_he-BU
