EXCLUSIVE: British crew members on an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey are pursuing legal action after the film collapsed, leaving some people so broke, they had to ask colleagues for fuel money to get home.

The contemporary reimagining of Austen’s 1818 novel was in advanced pre-production in Bath and Bristol in early 2025, when producers pulled the plug on the £7M ($9M) venture citing financing issues. More than a year later, crew members have not been paid, despite promises from American producers that they will be made whole. 

Some of the Northanger team said they were owed tens of thousands of pounds, with sources speculating that the total debt could be worth as much as £200,000. Those in charge of the production do not deny that crew were left out of pocket, but there is disagreement about how many weeks’ wages some are owed.

Bectu, the UK creative industry union, has been involved in pursuing missing earnings. A handful of crew members have filed paperwork for an employment tribunal, a legal process that settles disputes between workers and employers.

Northanger producers told Deadline that they have remained in constructive conversation with freelancers, adding that debts will be settled once the film is remounted. They blame the film’s financier for the issues, while the financier blames the producers. Talks have been ongoing with potential new investors.

Northanger is the third high-profile UK indie film collapse Deadline has reported on over the past year. Simon Pegg’s Angels in the Asylum and Cara Delevingne vehicle The Climb both went down amid similarly rancorous stories of producers running into financing issues, despite having committed to crewing up. 

The pattern has prompted calls for tougher indie film rules requiring producers to provide evidence of funding before embarking on production. There are no rules in the UK around putting crew cash in an escrow account. “If you want to buy a house, you can’t just rock up and purchase a house. You have to prove who you are and provide proof of funds,” said a senior Northanger crew member. “If you’re coming into this country to make a film, you should prove that you can pay people.”

Inexperienced Producers

Housed at special-purpose vehicle company Northanger Limited, Northanger Abbey was set up by American producers who do not boast major screen credits.

David Alan Ruben, who made his directorial debut on the 2024 PVOD comedy Ain’t We Got Fun?!, was listed as the writer, director and producer, according to a unit list. Jonathan Tosetti and Kathy Rich-McFarland, who collaborated with Ruben on his debut, were also named as producers. “They were a bit green,” one person said of the top team.

They enlisted Roy Button, the former managing director of Warner Bros. Productions in the UK, as a consulting producer. Button was comfortably the most experienced figure on the producing team, and a source close to the executive said he had been pressuring producers to pay crew. Button declined to comment.

Northanger Limited was founded in October 2024 with producers bankrolling development from private funds worth £300,000. Weeks later, producers entered an agreement with APX Group, the media fund that took a 50% stake in Twickenham Film Studios in 2023, to finance £3.8M of Northanger’s £7M budget.

Ruben’s modern twist on Northanger focused on a young American literature teacher named Catherine Winslet, who relocates to Bath to ghostwrite the memoirs of her eccentric idol, Mrs Daftwood. During the trip, Winslet meets a charming Brit named Edmund, who helps her live out her Jane Austen-inspired fantasies.

Sources familiar with the film said producers made offers to actors that were far higher than their usual rates. Yellowjackets star Sarah Desjardins was approached to play Winslet, while producers wanted Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) to play Mrs Daftwood, and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) was lined up to feature as Mr Daftwood. Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die) was also in talks about a role. Reps for the actors were approached for comment. There is no suggestion they were aware of the film’s troubles.

Northanger entered prep at Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios in early 2025, attracting a crew of around 50 people, including BAFTA winners, with offers of high rates. Some freelancers were wary of the producers’ lack of credits, but after a fallow period for filmmaking following the Hollywood strikes, many decided to take the plunge. The team was completing tech recces, late-stage prep work to evaluate the technical requirements of locations, when they got bad news: Northanger was going on indefinite hiatus.

Leaked Audio From Tense Meeting

The message was delivered during a tense meeting in February 2025. Deadline has heard audio from the gathering, during which Ruben alleged that investor APX had failed to deliver finance and was in breach of their agreement. “It has been the most brutal, horrible experience, and I’m just so sorry,” he told colleagues.

APX said the producers’ version of events was “false and inaccurate.” APX claimed it was not responsible for cast and crew costs, and alleged that the producers failed to meet their obligations, meaning they breached the financing deal. APX said it was owed $430,000 by Northanger Limited. 

Tosetti promised that the crew would be paid, pledging his own money to cover the debt. “The rest of my life savings are going to go to you people, and that’s the guarantee,” he said during the February meeting.

One crew member asked: “What’s to stop you from disappearing to America and we never see our money or anyone ever again?” Tosetti replied: “You all have lawyers.” The room full of freelancers erupted into laughter, and one person could be heard incredulously exclaiming: “You’re kidding, right?”

The reality is that some crew members were left so broke, they had to borrow cash from colleagues and family just to find their way home from Bristol, south-west England. Some had spent money on accommodation in Bath and turned down other work to be part of Northanger. “I had just £20 in my bank account when the film was halted,” one person said.

Producers: We Never Stopped Trying To Pay Crew

In an email to Deadline, producers said they have spent recent months in talks with investors as they attempt to remount Northanger, though the process has not been straightforward. They have remained in touch with freelancers and said they will be paid once the film is back underway. They said their decision to keep Northanger Limited trading, rather than declaring bankruptcy, was evidence of their intention to put things right. 

Producers added that some of the freelancers pursuing legal claims have agreed to work on the film should production resume. This was disputed by one freelancer who is a party to the legal proceedings. “Once bitten, twice shy,” they said.

“The real story is not that producers abandoned their crew. The real story is that an independent film lost its original financing,” producers said. “Since then, the production has been delayed by shifting investor requirements, repeated document disputes, bank and compliance delays, family emergencies, last-minute creative demands, threats of script doctors and outside reviews, multiple eleventh-hour rewrites, production agreement issues, and constant moving of the goalposts. None of this is because the producers stopped trying or refused to pay.”

In a statement, APX Group chairman Adi Cohen said: “APX denies the producers’ account. The suggestion that APX failed to perform or breached its agreements is false and inaccurate, and the position is the reverse of what has been put to you.

“Under its agreement with Northanger Ltd, APX’s funding commitment was directed at third-party contractors and suppliers engaged for the project. It did not extend to cast or crew costs, which were the producers’ responsibility. That is clear on the face of the agreement. Any suggestion that unpaid crew is a consequence of APX’s conduct is wrong and misleading.

“Those contractors were engaged on the strength of the producers meeting their own obligations to APX. The producers did not. They breached from an early stage, and the obligations they failed to meet went to the financial foundations of the project. As a result, those contractors and APX alike have been left unpaid, in substantial amounts.

“APX performed, advanced funding, and served a formal notice of default and demand. APX is itself among the creditors left by this production, with claims of approximately US$430,000, which it is pursuing through counsel. The collapse of this production, and the creditors and unpaid workers it has left behind, reflect on how it was run by its producers, not on APX, which performed and is now out of pocket.”