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2 articles from 2009

3 November 2009 2:01 PM, PST | WENN | See recent WENN news »

Filmmaker Michael Radford has been forced to suspend shooting on upcoming movie La Mula a week before it was due to wrap over financial fears.

The Il Postino director announced to his cast and crew he had no choice but to halt the comedy, about the Spanish Civil War, on Saturday.

He cited a lack of funding from producers for the decision, reports Daily Variety.

A number of organisations have invested in the $10.5 million (£6.6 million) project, including the U.K. Film Council and the Irish Film Board, but Radford has been unable to access the money as each financing group must first sign an agreement - and bosses at Gheko Films in Madrid, Spain are said to have thus far refused to do so.

As a result, several crewmembers have yet to receive payment for their efforts.

He explains, "All the co-producers have to sign together a number of agreements. In anticipation of this, I, the crew and the facilities companies started work in good faith. However, Gheko Films has consistently failed to sign these documents for reasons known only to themselves."

Radford is now pushing for his investors to pay up - because he's determined to complete the film: "I have not abandoned the film. I have suspended it and fully intend to go back and finish it. Why would I want to abandon the film after two-and-a-half years' work and one week from the end of a very successful shoot?"

The project features Maria Valverde, Mario Casas and Jesus Carroza. »

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8 June 2009 | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

- With more coin invested in the film, Michael Radford (most recently directed William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Flawless) is finally receiving the greenlight for his Spanish Civil War comedy. Shooting officially begins on August 31st in Andalusia with Maria Valverde (from Gonzalo López-Gallego's thriller El rey de la montaña, and she top-lined The Anarchist's Wife which played at Sundance) who is, I imagine, a co-lead. La Mula was set to commence shooting exactly the same time over two years ago, but I imagine the budget for the film is perhaps not epic scale Alejandro Amenábar's Agora had their initial investors fighting to get this movie made. Filming in a foreign language is not foreign to Radford, he directed the Italian language money maker Il Postino and he is set to be shooting in Spanish language for La Mula, which is based on the screenplay and book by Juan Eslava Galan. »

2 articles from 2009