About $300,000 of public money in the Charles Upham movie project is at risk after the company making the film collapsed.
Fat and Thin Men Productions Limited, the original vehicle for the ambitious $18 million film, went into voluntary liquidation on Monday.
The no-nonsense double Victoria Cross winner would be turning in his grave to learn the company owes a six figure sum to creditors.
The Ashburton District Council promised the project $150,000 cash, as well as other benefits, and has so far paid $50,000 to Fat and Thin.
Taranaki investors, including Venture Taranaki and the Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET), put more than $300,000 into the project.
The project has been dogged with problems ever since its high profile launch last year was exposed as being wildly optimistic.
About half the film was to be based in Taranaki while the rest was to be filmed in Ashburton, starting in September last year.
An English director, Justin Chadwick, who directed nine episodes of the award-winning television series Bleak House and the movie The Other Boleyn Girl, had been secured for the project, but it is not known whether he is still associated with it.
The directors of the company are Craig Aitken, of Waiau, Simon Clothier, of Wellington, Dean Stuart, of Auckland and John Woodham, of Christchurch.
The liquidators are PKF Corporate Recovery and Insolvency (Auckland).
Ashburton District Council chief executive Brian Lester said the directors had kept him informed about the liquidation and told him they were still working on making the film.
The council package was worth about $250,000, he said, but strict conditions had to be met.
“We are more concerned than we were six months ago given the delays but we still believe in the project and the importance of the project,” he said.
He had met Chadwick a number of times when Chadwick visited Ashburton to look at locations and facilities.
He believed Chadwick was happy with the script for the film.
The chairman of TET, Brian Jeffares, said the trust had provided Fat and Thin with an interest free loan of $150,000.
“We have heard from the chairman (of Fat and Thin) and still remain confident we have got an opportunity to make the film and it was a long term view investment. We have invested in opportunities before and some of them have been successful and some have been less successful.
“At this stage this one is spluttering but we are still of the view our investment hopefully will bear fruit,”he said. [stuff]
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