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Netflix and Brazilian production powerhouse Gullane are facing a new legal battle after California filmmaker Lauren Wild accused them of misappropriating his creative work for the Netflix Formula 1 Senna Series. The lawsuit, filed Friday, claims the streaming giant and producers lifted substantial material from Wild’s confidential project on the late racing icon Ayrton Senna—a Formula 1 legend whose tragic 1994 crash still echoes through motorsport history.

Wild’s Claims: Copyright, Contracts, and Broken Trust

Wild’s complaint levels multiple accusations—copyright infringement, breach of implied contract, breach of confidence, unjust enrichment, and violations of state law—against Netflix, Gullane, and individual producers. He alleges he had shared deeply researched, unpublished material about Senna’s life during private discussions meant to protect his intellectual property.

According to court filings, Wild met in 2013 with Sony Pictures executives T. Paul Miller and Peter Nelson, discussing his extensive research on Senna, including interviews with the driver’s inner circle. Although the Sony executives aren’t named as defendants, Wild asserts they expressed strong interest in his concept.

From Hollywood Talks to Brazilian Deals

By 2016, Miller—then at Warner Brothers—connected Wild with two producers negotiating with Gullane on a Senna project. Convinced by Miller that Gullane’s drafts were “poorly written,” Wild shared his treatment to help improve the production. What followed, he claims, was a web of false promises and silent deals.

Gullane producer Gabriel Lacerda later told Wild that Senna’s family “loved the treatment” and suggested turning the idea into a limited television series rather than a feature film. Wild says he then wrote 11 episodes titled Built For Speed: Senna and sent the first three episodes to Lacerda in 2017, followed by the remainder while negotiations continued.

Silence, Secrecy, and a Familiar Series

Wild recounts that after years of discussions—and even meetings with Senna’s niece, Bianca Senna—communication abruptly stopped on April 3, 2019. Soon after, he discovered that Gullane had been secretly developing its own project with Netflix, which would later emerge as the Netflix Formula 1 Senna Series.

Released in November 2024, Netflix’s Senna allegedly bears “substantial similarities” to Wild’s Built For Speed: Senna, even incorporating fictitious characters and storylines that Wild claims to have invented.

Legal Counsel and Pending Responses

Wild is represented by Sacha Emanuel of Isaacman Kaufman Painter Lowy & Zucker PC. Netflix and Gullane have yet to respond publicly to the lawsuit, and their legal representation was not immediately listed in court filings. Requests for comment from both Netflix and Gullane went unanswered Monday.

As the case unfolds, it pits one filmmaker’s decade-long passion project against one of the world’s most powerful streaming platforms—raising questions about creative ownership, collaboration, and the thin line between inspiration and imitation in Hollywood’s high-speed content race.