Island may no longer be prime location for Toilers film...

Producers David Shanks and Joy Mellins have been visiting Guernsey for the last three years to drum up support and commitments from investors in order to realise their ambition of making a feature film of Victor Hugo’s 1866 novel, which was written in and set in the island.

They have more recently been campaigning for the States to commit its support, along with an investment of between £1.5m. and £3m, all of which they have promised to spend on-island.

However, after Economic Development president Neil Inder told States members on Wednesday that his committee was maintaining its stance of not investing in the project and that the producers had submitted ‘no formal request for a meeting’, they said they had been left with no option but to look elsewhere.

‘Basically, we find it difficult to reconcile his answers with the facts as we know them,’ they said.

‘On 5 May, we wrote to Neil Inder and others, requesting a meeting so we could update them on our current progress. On the same day, Neil Inder replied that the committee’s view remained unchanged from our meeting 18 months previously.

‘On 15 May, we wrote in detail to Neil Inder, requesting financial support for the film, while guaranteeing that their investment would be spent on-island, thereby contributing to the local economy.

‘We also assured him that they would be in shared first position recoupment as the film is sold and would also share 60% of all profits with other equity partners.

‘We again requested a face-to-face meeting and provided some detail of the film’s latest interest from distributors and music companies.’

Mrs Mellins and Mr Shanks said they had also approached Policy & Resources, offering to give a presentation or attend a meeting to advise the latest position, but without success.

‘After [Wednesday’s States] question time, we feel we have been left with no alternative but to seek funding elsewhere and it tends to follow that wherever the money is raised, is where the money is spent.

‘We will of course be approaching all those who have given their support and financial backing, to advise them of our disappointment that Guernsey sadly will no longer be our prime location.

‘Those who, at the start of this journey, contributed to the development money, will receive the same deal wherever the film is shot, provided of course the film enters full production.’

Mrs Mellins said they had ‘genuinely wanted to make the film on-island, being its natural home, but after three-plus hard years, having tried every approach we could think of, we find ourselves at a loss to understand [the States’] thinking, so have little option but to move on’.

The impasse has left them feeling frustrated, they said, as their vision was to involve Guernsey as much as possible.

‘We have no words to express our sadness,’ Mrs Mellins said, ‘especially as Guernsey has become my second home and Dave’s primary home, where his love of the island was born in his childhood.’

...but Inder offers olive branch after re-reading email

THE producers of the proposed Toilers of the Sea film will be invited to meet the Committee for Economic Development again – even though they believed their last chance of investment in the movie from the States had gone.

The States yesterday agreed with David Shanks and Joy Mellins that they had sent an email seeking a meeting to Economic Development president Neil Inder – and that he had missed it.

‘In the interests of full disclosure, the producers sent a further email to Deputy Inder on 15 May 2022 clarifying aspects of their proposal and requesting a further meeting to update the president,’ it said in a statement.

‘That email was only found yesterday and the “request” for a meeting was buried at the end of a long email on the same subject.

‘The president very rarely declines to meet with individuals and groups. However it is a fact that there is a sentence, in an only recently-read email, that does request a meeting.

‘Contact will be made with the Toilers of the Sea producers, and out of courtesy, an arrangement will be made for them to meet with members of the Committee for Economic Development.’

The statement also said that the Toilers producers had been told in February 2021 that the committee was unable to provide investment finance for the film.

But it did ask officers to provide logistical support to enable filming to take place locally, particularly in securing access to sites such as Castle Cornet.

Deputy Inder had reconfirmed the committee’s view by email earlier this month and wrote to Mrs Mellins and Mr Shanks before receiving, but failing to spot, the email of 15 May.