‘Afterburn’ Production Awarded $7.7 Million Over Financing Fraud

An indie production company behind Afterburn, an upcoming post-apocalyptic sci-fi film starring Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson, has been has been awarded $7.7 million by an arbitrator over fraud tied to the financing of the project.

A backer of the movie, Tristian Peter, was found to have defrauded the company, Fourth Chance Productions, and breached a purchase agreement in which he committed $7.5 million toward the production of the movie in exchange for an executive producer credit, according to a court document filed on Thursday to confirm an arbitration ruling issued earlier this year.

Less than three months before filming for Afterburn was scheduled to commence in May 2024, Fourth Chance principal Steve Richards, whose executive producer credits include Orphan, The Book of Eli and Non-Stop, reached a deal with Peter to help finance the movie, stated the filing. During discussions, Peter said that he capitalized his business, Peter Brothers Consulting, with the funds the production was looking for and that he personally had the money to backstop the agreement, which was conditioned on a $13 million subsidy to shoot in Slovakia.

Peter failed to send the funds for production of Afterburn, which had a $56.7 million budget, by the deadline, Fourth Chance alleged.

In the ruling, an arbitrator found that Peter made false representations to induce Fourth Chance to agree to the purchase agreement. If not for those lies, Fourth Chance “would not have entered into such an agreement only two months before commencement of production with an entity that might not be able to pay,” the arbitrator wrote.

Peter didn’t have $7.5 million at the time the deal was struck, he testified, according to Thursday’s filing. He anticipated receiving a payment of $10.5 million in relation to a fuel sales agreement, which never materialized. At the time of his deposition last year, he still didn’t have the funds. 

Afterburn is directed by J.J. Perry and follows an ex-soldier played, who works as a treasure hunter recovering valuable objects for powerful clients and is tasked with recovering the Mona Lisa before it’s found by a warlord.