A Bunch of Amateurs (2008)

Isle Of Man: Investing In Films — And Losing

The Isle of Man, located between Ireland and Britain with a population of around 80,000, has done its utmost to lure film producers to its lush landscapes and mild climate. The government has funded its own production company CinemaNx, to support local filmmakers. But Britain’s Guardian newspaper has suggested that the semi-autonomist island’s investments have not paid off. For example, using tax money, CinemaNx invested about $20 million in Richard Linklater ’s 2009 film Me and Orson Welles . It got about $3 million of that amount back. It invested $4.5 million in a Burt Reynolds comedy, A Bunch of Amateurs , in 2008. The film was never released in the U.S.; it played for just one week in the U.K., where it earned about $300,000. But Isle of Man officials are philosophical — to say the least — about their terrible luck in the movie business. “Film is an industry which is, by reputation, risky,” treasury minister Anne Craine told the Guardian. “Some films have been extremely successful and brought in great returns, but sometimes you are not lucky; that is the nature of the game.”
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