Losing £10,000 in a ‘comedy’ movie was NO laughing matter
M.T. writes: In 2015, I invested £10,000 as a loan to help fund the making of a film, The Comedian’s Guide To Survival. The contract guaranteed my money back after a year, and I was supposed to receive a further £2,500 plus a percentage of sale proceeds. The film bombed, and I have been trying ever since to get my money back. The makers gradually paid me £3,000 and agreed to make monthly instalments which have not been forthcoming. The last payment I received was in 2020.
THIS is no laughing matter, which of course was part of the problem with the film itself.
Despite starring James Buckley of TV sitcom The Inbetweeners, movie industry reports say that when it opened in 2016 it raked in all of about £75 – and no, that is not a misprint. You told me that apart from wanting to help the British film industry, you believed you were not taking a serious risk with your savings.
You were not buying shares in the film company, The Comedian’s Guide To Survival Limited, which would have exposed you to the risk of a complete loss of your money, just as much as it would have given you a share of any profits. Instead, you made a loan, and the loan itself was backed up by a guarantee issued by another film company, Green Screen Productions Limited.
The problem is that the security of your loan was only as good as the film itself. And the guarantee was only as good as the company that issued it. And both companies were headed by the same man, the film’s producer Alan Latham.
The company bearing the film’s name is not looking healthy. Its last accounts only go up to 2019. Accounts due last September have not arrived at Companies House, which is an offence.
Officials started proceedings to dissolve the company, but action has been suspended. Typically, this means that creditors have objected – or an investigation has begun.
As for the guarantee company, it was shut down by the High Court five years ago for failing to pay taxes, so the guarantee is worthless.
The Comedian’s Guide To Survival Limited is based at Alan Latham’s film studios in Selby in North Yorkshire. He told me that ‘sadly it failed’, and he added that yet another company that was selling the film itself went into liquidation.
He explained: ‘The road to hell was paved with good intentions. We did not set out to make a film that did not work.’
Recovering your money might require divine intervention. Latham told me: ‘If by some miracle we can sell the picture, he will get repaid.’
As for his company’s missing accounts, the movie maker said: ‘We won’t let it get struck off. This is just my inefficiency.’
Putting money into any film is a risk, just because of the nature of the industry. But you should have been a bit safer by making a loan and getting a guarantee.
You told me a few days ago that you still hope you may recover something, but you are not holding your breath.
Sadly, that just about sums it up. It all reminds me of another film, made in 1991 with Danny DeVito as corporate raider ‘Larry the Liquidator’.
Explaining his commercial strategy, he proclaims that in business there is only one thing better than money, and that’s Other People’s Money. And that’s a better, and funnier film too.