The project needed increased financial assurances before the guarantors would be willing to agree to a
completion bond.
Film Finances, the company that invented
completion bonds in 1950, remains the first port of call for many producers looking to make such impossible dreams become reality.
Jason Zelin of
Completion Bond Company added that they are eager to assist producers in obtaining financing by qualifying them with the banks.
They don't know how to deal with production or completion risks, discounting TV pre-sale contracts or arranging
completion bonds," says Christophe Vidal, director of a main lender to the Spanish industry, Paris' CoficineNatixis.
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Completion bond guarantees; pledge to "produce in agreed time at agreed prices"
CineFinance became involved in the production, but Cheng denies speculation that the
completion bond company had taken over the picture.
Not only did Fiorentino fail to show up on set at the start of photography in Chicago, the German insurance company that had agreed to provide a
completion bond pulled out at the last minute, triggering the production's collapse.
The circumstances of Chow's departure were never clarified--local Chinese media said it was because of unreasonable demands by the thesp and conditions that
completion bond company CineFinance could not accept.
Rob Fisher, CEO of First Australian
Completion Bond Co.
Two of the biggest U.S.-based
completion bond firms are seeking to expand in the region.
"We're clearly busier than last year," says Steve Mangel, president and chief operations officer of Independent Film Guarantors, one of the leading
completion bond companies.