This concerns a single film production. I have chosen it because the primary source documents — co-production partner memos, budgets, cashflows, cast offers, interim cost reports, a closing list of thirty-five contracts, and a confidential sidebar agreement — are all in my possession. Every claim made below is supported by documents I hold. I am not going to tell you how I feel about it. I am going to show you what happened.
Between October 2004 and early 2006, I worked as Line Producer on Prisoners of the Sun, a four-party international co-production between the United Kingdom, Canada, Morocco, and Germany. The film was a fantasy-adventure directed by Roger Christian. The co-production partners were:
Framework Entertainment Ltd. — Neil Dunn (UK Producer)
Remstar Corporation Inc. — Andre Rouleau (Canada)
Global United Entertainment GmbH — Harald Reichebner (Germany)
Cinemakers GmbH — Alexander Dannenberg (Germany)
Cinetelema S.A.R.L. — Latif Lahlou (Morocco)
The production was completion bonded. The budget, which I prepared, totalled $5,899,291. The cashflow, which I prepared, ran to £1,314,190 for the Morocco production phase. The closing list, dated 26 November 2005, contained thirty-five contracts spanning co-production agreements, financing agreements, sale-and-leaseback arrangements, bank loan agreements, a collection agreement, insurance and completion bond agreements, cast and crew agreements, facility agreements, VFX and post-production agreements, and lab security access in three countries.
The film was eventually released in 2013. It scored 3.8 on IMDb.
Before you read what happened next, here is what the industry said about my work.
That is who they erased from the credits. Now here is how they did it.
Over the course of this engagement I built the following:
A production budget running to over one hundred pages, broken down by individual crew member, daily rate, currency (sterling, US dollars, Canadian dollars, euros, Moroccan dirhams), with every department from Story Rights through Contingency itemised to the level of individual SIM cards, pay-as-you-go top-ups, landline call charges, and rubbish clearance skips.
A dual-currency cashflow model covering Pre-Prep through Post, week by week, across fifty-seven cost categories.
An interim cost report dated 13 February 2006 tracking budget against actuals and commitments across the full production.
Cast offer documents for Amanda Plummer, Michael Ironside, Sean Patrick Flannery, Rachel Blanchard, Nick Moran, Gulshan Grover, Michael Higgs, Said Taghmaoui, and Touriya Haoud.
Co-Production Partner Memo #1, dated 10 December 2005, sent to all four co-production partners — summarising studio arrangements at Atlas Studios, the approved hiring process for Heads of Department, cast progress, set status, airline negotiations with Air Maroc, and banking arrangements.
A production report detailing every department head, every set, every location, every technical arrangement.
I set up the local bank account in Morocco. I prepared the cashflow for local production needs. I trained the local location manager, Hamid Herraf. I managed the relationship with Atlas Studios. I coordinated cast, crew, locations, and facilities across four territories. I ensured every Moroccan crew member was paid before I left.
Roger Christian, the director, was on the ground with me throughout. My phone number was listed in the partner memos. I co-signed the weekly reports. I was the production infrastructure.
Co-Production Partner Memo #1 is dated 10 December 2005. It is addressed to Neil Dunn, Harald Reichebner, Andre Rouleau, and Alexander Dannenberg — all four co-production partners.
"Currently here are LM, Roger Christian, Kate Dain and Thomas Christian, and we are anxious to continue the approved hiring process for Heads of Dept."
"The cashflow will be prepared by Kate to cover local needs through the month of December."
"Kate is setting up a local account and will advise of wiring instructions."
Signed: Kate Dain and Thomas Christian, Production Department.
Morocco contact numbers listed: Roger Christian · Latif Lahlou · Kate Dain · Hamid Herraf · Thomas Christian.
This memo was sent to the producers. The producers received it. The producers read it. The producers were being asked for approval at every step.
"The Moroccan Producer will in actuality have no financing obligations of any kind and/or nature for the Film under the Agreement or otherwise, as the funding in full will be handled and be the responsibility of the other Co Producers."
The UK Producer "guarantees that the Moroccan Producer will have no financial obligations" and agrees to "fully defend and indemnify" the Moroccan Producer against all claims.
The four-party co-production was, in actuality, a three-party co-production with a service arrangement dressed as a treaty structure. The Moroccan co-production partner had zero financing obligations. This is the architecture I was operating within. This is the structure I was making function on the ground.
When the financing collapsed, I got the entire crew flights home. I ensured every Moroccan crew member was paid before I left.
The producers then claimed that I had started prep without their consent.
They claimed I went rogue.
A completion bond is an insurance guarantee that a film will be delivered on time and on budget. It is the single most rigorous financial oversight mechanism in film production. A bonded production cannot lawfully commence principal photography without producer consent. Department head hires require formal approval. Weekly cost reporting to the bond company is mandatory.
The claim that a line producer "went rogue" on a bonded production is structurally implausible. It is the equivalent of claiming an airline pilot took off without clearance from the control tower — while the control tower was reading the pilot's weekly flight reports.
I was not the only person owed money. The production engaged ten UK department heads during the prep period. I have their invoices.
| Name | Role | Invoiced | Received | Outstanding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kate Dain | Line Producer | £23,040 | £3,400 | £19,640 |
| Simon Bowles | Production Designer | £10,986 | £3,400 | £7,586 |
| Mike Fowlie | Art Director | £12,000 | £4,500 | £7,500 |
| Damian Bromley | Director of Photography | £4,700 | £2,000 | £2,700 |
| Thomas Christian | UK Production Manager | £3,240 | £405 | £2,835 |
| Mary Soan | 1st Assistant Director | £3,525 | £1,500 | £2,025 |
| Fraser Grant | Production Accountant | £3,750 | £1,500 | £2,250 |
| Robin Fraser-Paye | Costume Designer | £3,750 | £1,250 | £2,500 |
| Paul Wanklin | Physical FX Supervisor | £3,000 | £1,500 | £1,500 |
| Joe Dipple | Props Master | £2,500 | £1,250 | £1,250 |
| Total Outstanding | £49,786 | |||
All invoices are in sterling. All are in my possession.
The film was eventually completed and released in 2013. I cross-referenced the ten UK department heads from the debt schedule against the final credits.
Two went back. Eight were replaced. Only one was blamed.
The script for Prisoners of the Sun is set in 3000 B.C. — the Early Dynastic Period. Within five pages, it features long metal tongs and daggers in the Copper Age, a thousand years before bronze was common. It uses the title "Pharaoh's Consort" — not a real Egyptian title. It references the Chapel of Osiris, who did not become a major national deity until the Middle Kingdom, roughly a thousand years later. It shows the Pharaoh gazing at the "great pyramids" — five hundred years before the first pyramid at Saqqara was built and five hundred and fifty years before the Giza plateau existed.
The birth scene — set in 3000 B.C. — features a physician requesting "long metal tongs" to deliver a baby. This is not obstetric history. This is a home renovation project written by someone who once saw a picture of a pyramid and thought, yeah, I get the gist.
The eight department heads who were replaced and never paid — the people who actually prepped a production ready to shoot — did not fail. The script failed. The financing failed. The producers failed. And then the producers blamed the line producer.
Account 1210 — Line Producer: Budget $51,800 · Committed $23,040 · Actuals $40,320. That is my invoiced amount, converted to US dollars, sitting in the production's own accounting. The production acknowledged the commitment. It is in their own cost report.
Visual Effects: $635,250
Construction Materials: $106,713 (of which $20,178 already spent)
Atlas Studios Rental: $108,000 (of which $40,000 already paid)
Prosthetics: $95,550
Star Fees: $309,625
Completion Bond: $180,000
Interim Financing: $200,000
Contingency: $350,000
This was not a low-budget independent film. This was a $5.9 million bonded international co-production with lab agreements in three countries, and I was the person who built, managed, and reported its financial architecture.
The producers claimed I started prep without their consent. They claimed I flew crew out on my own credit card without permission.
Their own documents contradict this.
The closing list of 26 November 2005 shows thirty-five contracts in various stages of execution — all of which required producer authorisation.
The Co-Production Partner Memo of 10 December 2005 — sent to the producers, by me — asks for their approval to hire department heads and states that the production is anxious to continue the "approved" hiring process.
The production report describes a fully staffed, fully prepped production with departments running, sets built, cameras tested, prosthetics in progress, and a 1st AD already integrating the schedule.
The interim cost report — my report — tracks every dollar against every commitment, in the format the completion bond required.
The cast offers — which I prepared — were going out to Amanda Plummer, Michael Ironside, Sean Patrick Flannery, and Rachel Blanchard.
None of this is consistent with a line producer who "started prep without consent." All of it is consistent with a line producer doing exactly what she was engaged to do, with the knowledge, approval, and active participation of the producers and the director.
This is one production out of many. The pattern is the same pattern described in Part One of The Reckoning: a producer builds the infrastructure, the production proceeds or collapses, the producer is not paid, and the story is rewritten to blame the person who did the work.
What makes this case different is the depth of the paper trail. I did not keep a few documents. I kept everything. The budget. The cashflow. The cost report. The partner memos. The production report. The cast offers. The closing list. The sidebar agreement. The invoices. The crew debt schedule.
The producers' own memo chain proves they were informed, consulted, and asked for approval at every step. Their own cost report acknowledges my invoiced fees. Their own closing list proves the production was bonded, financed across four territories, and operating under thirty-five contracts — not the work of a single line producer acting without consent.
I trained the man who replaced me. I paid the crew who were abandoned when I left. I built the budget the completion bond praised. I prepared the cashflow that funded the production. I set up the bank account that received the wires. I wrote the reports they read every week.
Then they blamed me. The documents say otherwise.
If any party named in this account disputes the factual record presented here, I invite them to provide documentary evidence to the contrary. The documents referenced above remain in my possession and are available for independent forensic review.