Inside Netflix’s Gold and Greed: How Dean King and James Campbell Turned Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Hunt Into the Wildest True Story of the Year

In a world where true crime rules the charts and reality shows blur the line between fact and fiction, Gold and Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure crashes through the noise like a pickaxe to bedrock. This pulse-pounding Netflix documentary dives headfirst into one of America’s most bizarre real-life mysteries — the modern-day search for Forrest Fenn’s hidden treasure.

Millions tuned in when eccentric millionaire and art dealer Forrest Fenn buried a literal chest of gold and jewels in the Rocky Mountains and dropped a cryptic poem as the only clue. But the story is deeper than that. Darker, too. Five people died trying to find it. Lives were upended. Obsession took hold.

Enter Dean King and James Campbell — two rugged storytellers with the guts (and track record) to tell this tale right. King, a nonfiction literary powerhouse and veteran war-zone researcher, and Campbell, a survivalist historian who’s logged miles across Arctic tundras and New Guinea jungles, don’t just direct the documentary — they chase the story like the treasure itself.

“We weren’t interested in a gimmick,” King shared. “We wanted to explore what makes people risk their lives for something they might never find — and what it says about the American dream.”

What they deliver is more than just a true adventure documentary. It’s a psychological excavation. Gold and Greed peels back layers of human desire, from the lonely thrill-seekers who dropped everything to decode Fenn’s riddle, to the grieving families of those who never came back.

Shot across sweeping American landscapes and woven with firsthand interviews, death-defying stories, and intimate reflections, the documentary mirrors the mythos of the American frontier — part Jack London, part Hunter S. Thompson. It asks: What’s the real treasure — the chest? Or the chaos it leaves in its wake?

Campbell, whose critically acclaimed books like The Final Frontiersman and Braving It have cemented him as a voice of raw, real adventure, brings a grounded, human tone to the madness.

“The obsession was real,” Campbell says. “But so was the beauty. These weren’t just treasure hunters. They were people looking for purpose. Looking for something bigger than themselves.”

The result is Netflix’s next breakout doc — an emotionally complex, visually stunning, and narratively gripping ride that digs deep into the heart of obsession, risk, and redemption.

As true crime and treasure-hunting documentaries dominate streaming in 2025, Gold and Greed stakes its claim as one of the year’s most unforgettable stories. It’s not just about gold — it’s about the ghosts it leaves behind.

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