yBack in the Spring of 2015, Simon West, the film director behind blockbusters like Tomb Raider and ConAir, raised £2.3m in equity crowdfunding on the ECf platform, Syndicate Room. This was to make a new film entitled Salty.
The vehicle used to raise this money and to make the film was called Salty Ltd - a company where West was one of the directors and a shareholder. Their website has gone a little cold - latest news dated in the summer of 2015 - http://www.saltymovie.com/index.html No news on the web about the film that we could find and certainly no film.
Syndicate Room described the set up - The company Salty Film Ltd will coordinate the production of Salty with West at the helm as lead director/producer.
What is interesting is the fact that West resigned from Salty Ltd on the 18th January this year and incorporated a new company a few days later, called Simon West Films Ltd. He is this company's sole shareholder and sole director.
The film has a signed deal with Carnaby for distribution and West had brought his production team from ConAir and Tomb Raider.
We have asked for some clarification on what this means for the film, if anything but have, as yet, had no response. It does seem slightly odd that the central figure in all of this, the famous director, is no longer part of the project that 145 film enthusiasts put £2.3m into, less than a year ago.
This was originally billed as an adventure comedy, we hope it isnt going to turn into a disaster movie.
Simon West is still directing Salty. Simon has resigned as a director of the company because the bond company that insure the production don't like directors of the movie, the person that is going to be spending a great deal of the money, to also be a director of the company. They see this as a conflict of interest. Hence our lawyers have advised Simon to step down as we prepare to go into production. You sent an email to us 2 hrs ago asking for clarification on this, then published this without waiting for a response! Harry (Producer of Salty)
ReplyDeleteWell then the obvious question is since you all clearly knew this - being as you are very experienced in this industry - why on earth was he made a director of the company in the first place and why resign now just when he is setting up his new company and was in Berlin recently selling his new action war movie?
ReplyDeleteNew film called Thunder Run. Can you tell me where the conflict of interests is? As a Director of the company in charge of the film , West would be liable under company law to behave in a way that looked after the company, shareholders etc. Outside of the company he is not liable to do any such thing. So I cannot see this conflict, maybe you could explain?
DeleteFilm directors are often involved in the development of screenplays and preparations for the films they will direct and in that regard for ease they form part of the company that develops the project ( rather than being hired to perform that development work) – but when the film moves into the production phase they are normally required to resign as company directors and instead sign a director agreement which covers their services for the company and contains the normal obligations imposed on a director of the film by the production company and by the film’s insurers. He should not be on both sides of that contract. There is nothing strange in this it is entirely normal and indeed beneficial for investors and the production as a whole.
DeleteOK thanks for that clarification. Look forward to the film release.
DeleteA bit of googling suggests that this film was eventually released under the name Gun Shy, & was utterly panned by the critics. Would be interested in knowing what that means for the ECF investors. It can’t be good.
ReplyDelete