The British government will pay back crew members left out of pocket after a new Simon Pegg film was forced to cancel production due to financial problems.
Approximately £600,000 ($800,000) is owed to those working on the independent period drama, titled Angels in the Asylum, which filmed for half a month in February 2025 before grinding to a halt.
According to Deadline, the UK government’s Redundancy Payments Service (RPS), funded by National Insurance payments, have told crew members to expect a form of remuneration.
The report claims that crew members are not expecting to receive the full amount, with one noting they believe they will be paid back a third of the money owed to them.
The RPS aids those who are owed money when businesses run into financial trouble. Last year, the service helped out almost 70,000 people left in the red, and the amount that’s given back is funded by National Insurance payments.
“It’s absolutely outrageous,” the anonymous person told the outlet. “The government is paying up for the mistakes of the producers. This is not why I pay my taxes. Pegg and the executive producers could write this off in a second and pay everyone off.”
Mission: Impossible actor Pegg was an executive producer on the film, as well as its lead star, but he was not paid for his work and didn’t have any involvement with the film’s finances. The Independent has contacted Pegg for comment.
A spokesperson for AITA Films, a production company that’s been in administration since April 2025, said: “Crew payments are being handled through the standard insolvency process.”
At the time the company went into administration, Angels in the Asylum director Rob Sorrenti and producer Heather Greenwood said: “We have been forced into appointing an administrator as a precaution. We hope this is temporary while we continue to raise the funds for the film.”
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However, one year on, creditors are owed approximately £3.8m ($5m).
Angels in the Asylum is a true story about a group of women who were wrongly imprisoned in a mental institution in Surrey after being deemed to be typhoid carriers in the first half of the 20th century.
The film also starred Katherine Waterston, Minnie Driver, Aurora Perrineau, Rose Williams and Alex Jennings.
Deadline reported that, when the film went into production, its budget was set at £4.9m, but started shooting without all of its money in place. Just 15 days into the shoot in February, a gap in the budget emerged and production was paused.
In an email update, reportedly sent by Sorrenti and producer Heather Greenwood in March 2025, the crew were told: “We appreciate how difficult this is for everyone. We’re incredibly sorry. We endeavour to give you all an update as soon as possible, but the situation is incredibly complex … Please know we are in this with you, neither of us intended to be in this situation and have been personally affected by it too.”
A further statement from Sorrenti and Greenwood said: “It has taken 15 years to bring the film into production. It was devastating when we were forced to halt filming due to our second round of financing failing to materialise. After being let down we were forced into hiatus.
“Since that time, we have been desperately trying to raise finances with the goal of addressing our outstanding obligations to both our cast and crew. We have also put some of our own funds into the project, but sadly, it hasn’t been enough to rectify the situation. We remain determined to find a solution. We also want to make it very clear that we, the producers, have not been paid for our work on the production.”
Pegg reportedly told his colleagues: “We’re making something really special here, something important. This is a crisis, but it’s also an opportunity, and we’ll be back soon.”
There are currently no plans to resume production on the film.
