Film finance and manufacturing firm Productivity Media Inc. has suspended its CEO amid a probe over allegations of monetary mismanagement, the corporate tells The Hollywood Reporter. It just lately knowledgeable traders that its government workforce had introduced in auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers to examine its books and overview loans.
“We can confirm that there is an ongoing confidential investigation and that William Santor is currently on a temporary leave of absence,” a consultant stated.
A number of sources inform THR that at the very least some producers on PMI productions — impartial movies with budgets usually beneath $10 million — haven’t been paid their full charges and imagine distribution efforts could also be imperiled by the problems now beneath overview. “It is the company’s policy not to comment on these types of alleged contractual matters in a public forum,” the PMI consultant stated.
Santor, the founding father of PMI, didn’t reply to a request for remark. He’s lengthy operated Prosapia, a Canadian wealth administration agency that claims it companies a number of household workplaces.
PMI has been a Hollywood lender for greater than a decade. It supplies financing secured in opposition to distribution rights in addition to interim financing secured in opposition to tax credit score rebates. Its best-known tasks have included Aubrey Plaza’s indies The Little Hours and Black Bear.
For the reason that pandemic, a bunch of PMI tasks have been shot within the Cayman Islands — together with Ron Perlman’s vigilante motion film The Baker and Don Johnson’s thriller Unit 234 — beneath a multi-production pact made with the self-governing British territory’s movie fee. (The Cayman Islands are often known as a hub for offshore banking, not leisure manufacturing.) “[The government’s] vision to develop and foster a robust film industry is very exciting, while offering a safe and secure place for production in these unprecedented times,” Santor informed Display screen Each day in 2021.
PMI’s buzziest upcoming movie, black-and-white boxing drama Day of the Battle — the directorial debut of Jack Huston starring his former Boardwalk Empire costar Michael C. Pitt — just lately employed various prime PR companies to assist launch an Oscar marketing campaign. It’s set to debut in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Nov. 15, adopted by a nationwide growth.
