The crew and cast of BET Africa’s drama series Queendom has resorted to a complete halt, following two months of non-payment from Clive Morris Productions.
Clive Morris Productions which has existed in the South African entertainment industry for over three decades, has found themselves embroiled in an unfortunate and unpredictable funding turbulence after an investor dropped them at the very last minute, according to IOL.
Speaking to the abovementioned publication, its CEO, Clive Morris said this predicament led to them not being able to secure funds needed for their co-investment in the production.
“We had funds ready to pay for our share, BET paid their share but our funder let us down at the very last moment. We are not sure why, we don’t know if something else came along but the funder at the very last moment, when they were supposed to deposit the funds, didn’t.
“We have been trying to find another funder to come in and BET is also trying to assist in finding funding. I think there has been some really good progress, but that is the reason why people have not been paid at the moment. It’s very unfortunate and unique circumstances as we as producers are funding the percentage of a show,” explained Clive.
Entertainment commentator, Phil Mphela also reported on the non-payments and how it affected the cast and crew.
UPDATE:
Queendom situation dire
I have been alerted to the devastating ripple effects of the non-payment issue at the new BET telenovela.
The show’s staff is fuming. Sources have informed me that it has been almost 3 months of not getting paid salaries for their work on the… pic.twitter.com/DCH6jBolOx
— Kgopolo (@PhilMphela) July 8, 2024
Also see: Clive Morris productions loses Empini to another Production house