The Scoop
Netflix has passed on Icarus: The Aftermath, the sequel to the documentary that won the service its first Academy Award for a feature doc in 2018. The film follows Grigory Rodchenkov, an architect of the Russian doping program that tainted the 2014 Sochi Olympic games, as he enters into the witness protection program in the United States.
Icarus: The Aftermath screened at Telluride in September of 2022, where it received positive notices. The Hollywood Reporter called it “documentary as spy thriller, a portrait of institutional gaslighting, a legal nail-biter, an intimate look at the cost of refuting authoritarian doctrine, and, above all, an affecting character study.”
Two people close to the producers say they believe it hasn’t sold because distributors are increasingly leery of hard-edged political documentaries in general, as they shift their focus to lighter softball sports and celebrity projects. They also worry that distributors are wary of Russian cyberattacks in retaliation.
Fogel confirmed by email that the film has not yet found a distributor, but declined to comment further. He complained publicly that his most recent film, The Dissident, didn’t sell because streamers were afraid of angering Saudi Arabia with a film focused on the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
A Netflix spokesperson denied that hacking fears had anything to do with their calculus, and the service did just pick up Alex Gibney’s film about the Russian exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Citizen K.
Notable
Matt Belloni reported in 2022 on Netflix’s skepticism of the film, suggesting that part of the reason may be that Fogel is “no picnic.”
