There is one thing that TV and Film freelancers hate more than not getting paid - and that is not being told why they are not being paid. It is bad enough not to receive the wage you were expecting (and relying on) to pay your bills, but when a Producer doesn’t respond to any of the emails and increasingly desperate messages you send to find out what is going on, you can add a revolting lack of respect to the monetary failure involved.

Step forward Alan Latham, a Producer with a past, and also one with a current present which involves running away with numerous freelancers’ cash, money which they should have been paid for the work they have just done on his feature film “Rufus Kane”.

Happy to take the work they had to offer, it seems that Latham is less keen to meet his side of the bargain struck for their work and has now dispappeared, not responding to any communications from anyone who is trying to get the pay they earned. Line Producer James T Ryan has gone similarly AWOL, not responding either and generally holding his hands up in the air.

Alan Latham’s past history is not one which should inspire any hope in freelancers’ hearts either, having previously failed to pay freelancers, in full and on time, through another of his companies, Highfield Grange Studios, and also having teamed up with notorious non-payer Phillipe Martinez in the past.

At some point Alan Latham will have to emerge from the hole in which he is hiding, probably to try to jack up some other production or other. If he does, freelancers and suppliers would be well advised to take a very wide berth around him. As it stands, freelancers on the current production are advised to apply as much pressure as they can on Latham - including notifying any co-funders or distributors who might be involved and generally spreading the word to agents and suppliers that he is not an individual to be relied on in any way when it comes to honest and fair dealings.

Alan Latham - GSP Studios - Freelancers Beware!