Work has resumed on the filming of A Long Day’s Journey into Night after a delay last month because of financial difficulties.
The filming of Irish-American playwright Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1956 play, starring Jessica Lang and Ed Harris, is happening in Co Wicklow.
However, production at Ardmore Studios in Bray, as well as at a specially built New England-style house at Magheramore beach south of Wicklow town, was brought to a sudden halt after only a few days last month when funds to pay crew ran dry.
Those behind the production declined to discuss the financial difficulties at that time but several people contracted to work on the film told The Irish Times they had not been paid and feared they might never be.
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That has now changed, however.
Bill Kenwright, a London-based film and theatre director, has agreed to refinance production through his BK Studios film and TV production operation, and is being represented on A Long Day’s Journey by Naomi George, an executive producer in film and TV at Bill Kenwright Ltd.
Word that the film’s financial problems had been resolved was relayed to debtors earlier this month and production resumed last week as people began to be paid.
“I got paid and so did everyone in the section I was working in,” said one source, who declined to be identified.
Cash flow financial problems are apparently extremely rare once a film goes into production. Last month, shocked film crew members were told on set that there was no money to pay them for work done over several weeks during the pre-production phase of making the film.
Despite assurances that talks were taking place to resolve the problem, they declined to work further until paid and production ground to a halt as the producer, the acclaimed director and filmmaker, Redmond Morris worked to obtain alternative source of finance.
Mr Morris did not respond to efforts to contact him and a representative of the production on site in Bray declined to discuss matters. It is not known what precisely led to the cash flow problem.
“I really felt for them,” said one source who has now been paid. “It’s obviously the worst nightmare for a producer and well done them for getting it up and running again. No mean feat.”
