British taxpayers are covering part of the £600,000 owed to crew members of the collapsed Simon Pegg film Angels in the Asylum, after the production company entered administration. The government’s Redundancy Payments Service, funded by National Insurance contributions, has stepped in to repay some of the wages lost when filming halted in February 2025.
Crew members will not receive the full amount owed; one expects to get only around a third of their due pay. The worker expressed anger that the burden falls on taxpayers rather than the producers or executive producers, including Pegg, who was not involved in the film’s finances and was unpaid for his role.
The film was produced by AITA Films Limited, which filed for administration in April 2025. Administrators Kallis Insolvency Practitioners reported that the company owes approximately £3.8 million to creditors. AITA Films stated that crew payments are being handled through the standard insolvency process.
Among the creditors is Brandhouse Global Limited, which provided £486,966 in interim financing after anticipated funding from Parkland Pictures did not materialise. Parkland CEO John Cairns said his company had no agreement to finance the film beyond sales agency work.
Inspired by true events, Angels in the Asylum stars Katherine Waterston, Minnie Driver, and others. The film centres on women forcibly confined in Surrey’s Long Grove Asylum in the 1930s as suspected typhoid carriers. Talks with a prospective rescue investor have not resulted in a remount of the production.
