Melting coins to sell them as raw materials is illegal and punishable by fines of up to $10,000 and 5 years in prison. The metals found in pennies and nickels are worth more than the coins’ face value, and with labor costs, pennies are worth 1.73 cents and nickels 8.74 cents. The U.S. Mint is testing some cheaper metallic mixtures because Congress is expected to mandate a change in coins’ composition to cut costs. In 1982 a similar change was made to pennies. Those made before then are...
Film crew's agony over Ecstasy sacking
January 8, 2007 on 1:51 pm | In Money |
WE’VE HAD the ecstasy, now for the agony. Plans to bring a best-selling Irvine Welsh novel to the big screen have been hit by delay following the sacking of the Scottish crew.
The filming of Welsh’s Ecstasy, billed as a Trainspotting for the 21st century, was supposed to begin last November.
But shooting will not now begin until March at the earliest and there are fears the project will not happen at all.
Scots actors originally attached to the film - such as The Lord Of The Rings star Billy Boyd and Still Game’s Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill - now say they have other commitments.
The Scottish crew initially hired to work on the film appear to have been dismissed with the North American team accusing their counterparts of attempting to “destroy” and “discredit” the project. The Scots are claiming thousands of pounds in unpaid wages for pre-production labour.
Rob Heydon, the Canada-based director, co-writer and co-producer of the 6.5m budget film, told Scotland on Sunday: “We have replaced our PM (production manager) and line producer. They are obviously very bitter about it.”
Production was due to start on November 20, with a cast that also included English ballet superstar Will Kemp, and glamorous Canadian actresses Erica Durance, who plays Lois Lane on the hit Superman TV series Smallville, and Lisa Ray.
Ecstasy tells the story of an ageing drug dealer who mends his ways and finds true ecstasy through love.
Heydon, whose track record is in producing music videos, and most of the film’s 13-strong team of producers, are based either in Canada or the US. But a crew of 40 was recruited in Scotland, with others on stand-by, and studio space, offices, accommodation and transport were booked.
At only a few days’ notice, the start-date was put back a week, and there have been further postponements, for reasons that have never been entirely clear. Heydon insists the film will now shoot in March but in the meantime the entire Scottish crew, including line producer Philippa Atterton, are no longer working on the project.
She said: “I had been working with Rob since December 2005 on budgets and plans and naturally developed an emotional attachment to the project.”
Tensions began to escalate last year after the start-date for filming began to slip. Anonymous postings appeared on the Internet Movie Database website, criticising the North American producers and throwing doubt on the film’s prospects.
The Scots crew had to do an amount of work before shooting began, but wages depended on the film going ahead. One comment, posted on IMDB by “ecstasywonthappen”, claimed crew members were missing out on other work and cash.
“There have been too many films with dodgy finance and producers coming to Scotland, so why should the people in Glasgow want to welcome this one? They are all getting fed up being left out of pocket,” said the post.
One American producer hit back at the message, saying: “We have had to replace some of the crew. Why do you think they are working so hard to be destructive and discredit our film? Sour grapes.”
Although it was never officially confirmed, it seemed there were financial problems and Atterton was instructed to release the entire crew.
She received an e-mail from Allan Levine, a executive producer who is based in Canada, saying: “I have insisted financing arrangements be concrete and therefore bondable before we proceed with any other elements of the production process… At that time, we will insist on paying you… for the very hard work that you have done.”
Atterton said the crew were due about 30,000. She added: “I have no idea where Rob gets any notions of our being bitter. Disappointed and frustrated are more accurate.”
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