Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Considering the intensity of the news, movies have provided a nice escape this summer. The stars! The action! The fun! The… politics?!? Yep, it’s 2017, and everything has a political bent. If you’ve bought tickets for Wonder Woman, Dunkirk, or The LEGO Batman Movie, then you’ve also given a teeny tiny amount of money to the Koch brothers.
As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, businessmen and political donors Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch are major (albeit silent) investors in RatPac-Dune Entertainment. That’s the production company behind a ton of major Warner Bros. projects, including all the DC Entertainment films as well as the LEGO movies, Mad Max: Fury Road, Magic Mike XXL, and really just a lot of others.
The prolific production company was formed back in 2013, when Brett Ratner took his RatPac and merged it with (current Treasury Secretary) Steven Mnuchin’s Dune. Mnuchin brought in the Koch brothers, known for their funding of right-wing candidates and support of the Tea Party, and the pair invested $450 million in the new RatPac-Dune Entertainment. Since RatPac-Dune is a private company, the Koch brothers’ involvement never had to be disclosed and has only come to light now thanks to unnamed sources.
Sources also say that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also invested a similar amount of money in RatPac-Dune. If you’re wondering why billionaires like the Koch brothers and Bill Gates aren’t listed as executive producers on all these films, a source says they’re all “in it to make money. They’re not in it for the recognition.”
This news probably comes as a shock to many in Hollywood, as the Koch brothers aren’t exactly well-liked in liberal circles. Their company, Koch Industries, has been singled out as a polluter (they have a whole page on greenpeace.org) and the company has often lobbied to weaken environmental regulations.
RatPac didn’t respond to THR’s request for a comment, and a Koch Industries spokesperson told the site that “Charles Koch, David Koch and Koch Industries do not have any involvement with this investment.”
