A discarded laborious drive, a billion-dollar Bitcoin pockets, and a trash-strewn landfill in Wales at the moment are the inspiration for a high-stakes docuseries.
Leisure firm LEBUL introduced this week that it has acquired unique rights to the story of James Howells, the British engineer who famously misplaced entry to eight,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013.
Dubbed ‘The Buried Bitcoin: The Actual-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells,’ the multi-platform challenge will span a premium docuseries, a podcast, and a social-first storytelling marketing campaign.
It goals to dramatize Howells’ decade-long quest to recuperate the drive—now estimated to be value greater than $800 million, from a municipal dump in Newport, Wales.
“This isn’t simply content material,” mentioned Reese Van Allen, President of Unscripted Leisure at LEBUL. “It’s a live-action tech thriller with almost a billion {dollars} on the road.”
Howells, an early Bitcoin miner, says his former associate unintentionally tossed the laborious drive in 2013. Since then, he’s taken Newport Metropolis Council to court docket a number of occasions, searching for permission to excavate the positioning or demanding a share of the worth, at one level requesting £495 million in compensation.
Regardless of providing to separate any recovered funds with the town and native residents, courts have dominated in opposition to him, citing environmental and property legislation issues.
Howells’ authorized battle
Most lately, Howells misplaced a serious authorized battle in Cardiff Excessive Court docket in early 2025. The council plans to close down the landfill through the 2025–2026 fiscal yr and redevelop a part of it right into a photo voltaic farm.
Undeterred, Howells has steered he might attraction to the Supreme Court docket—and even attempt to purchase the whole landfill.
LEBUL’s adaptation will mix real-time environmental battle, blockchain lore, and private obsession. Based on the corporate, international streaming platforms and crypto sponsors are already circling the challenge.
Howells’ story, usually likened to a modern-day treasure hunt, will now attain a broader viewers as LEBUL turns a forgotten piece of e-waste into leisure gold.
