Checkmate Was the Warning Shot: The Real-Life Federal Case Behind the Film

The Man Behind Checkmate: How Enzo Zelocchi Fought Back Against a Global Criminal Network

Before a single frame of Checkmate was storyboarded, its future leading man was living the plot in real time. A criminal case and a civil federal lawsuit now pending in Los Angeles (Case No. 2:24-cv-09601) confirms that the upcoming thriller is rooted in events so extreme they read like a rejected Jason Bourne draft. Four household names sit on the villain’s target list—Steven Spielberg, Margot Robbie, Todd Philips, and Enzo Zelocchi — and every…

Checkmate Was the Warning Shot: The Real-Life Federal Case Behind the Film

When Enzo Zelocchi first teased Checkmate in trade interviews, he called it “a thriller about surveillance run amok.” What he didn’t say—couldn’t say, for legal reasons—was that the storyboards doubled as a confession. Every beat in the script mirrors allegations now spelled out in Case No. 2:24-cv-09601, a civil RICO action pending in the U.S. […] The post Checkmate Was the Warning Shot: The Real-Life Federal Case Behind the Film appeared first…