The new Jean Claude Van Damme movie, ‘Kickboxer’ leaves New Orleans without paying crew members and vendors.
According to Nola.com, the upcoming feature film, ‘Kickboxer‘, which we posted casting calls earlier this month, has left New Orleans without paying crew members, despite finishing more than a week ago.
New Orleans-based special effects coordinator R. Michael Bisetti said 150 crew members — not including vendors — are awaiting payment in the middle of the holiday season for work covering up to three weeks. The last day of shooting in the city was Dec. 13.
The goal is before Christmas Day, hopefully Tuesday (Dec. 23), he said. Producers are grateful for the crew’s work in New Orleans, and “all their effort will not be for naught,” Freund said.
“It’s the producer’s intent to get everybody paid as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that the film’s production will continue on schedule.
On the last day of shooting at the Market Street power plant, crew members refused to begin work after learning that paychecks wouldn’t be arriving as expected, according to three crew members.
The crew was eventually persuaded to finish the day, after producers promised to deliver payments by the following Tuesday — but that never happened, crew members said.
More than 200 people and their families are waiting to get paid and as one crew member pointed out, he is torn between paying bills and buying Christmas presents for his four kids.
‘Kickboxer’ is produced by Field of Radar Films with Dimitri Logothetis and Nick Celozzi. The movie is a reboot of the original ‘Kickboxer’ series. The original movie also starred Van Damme. THe movie is currently moving to Thailand to finish filming.
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