The Lovers
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- Directed By: Roland Joffé
- Written By: Roland Joffé
- Release Date: March 13, 2015
- Domestic Distributor: IFC
- Cast: Josh Hartnett, Bipasha Basu, Tamsin Egerton
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $35 million (estimated) | Financed by: Corsan |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $0 | Overseas Gross: $53,899 |
Formally known as Singularity, this Roland Joffé directed film was in development since the 90’s and began filming in 2010 and was plagued by financial problems that derailed the film for years. The Lovers was financed by the now bankrupt Belgian company Corsan, which was run by Paul Breuls who was eventually arrested in 2017 after running the company as a criminal enterprise. Corsan was supposed to have a business model that involved funding through Belgian tax credits and also operate as a legal tax shelter for individual investors — but Breuls never gave investors their tax certificates and basically stole their money.
The budget for The Lovers was an estimated $35 million and Corsan covered $13.65 million of the expenses through a fund they operated called Film Finance IV and they set up numerous creditors to front the costs. The Lovers was apparently poorly produced and budgeted and the production quickly saw money dry up and crew not paid, which prompted shut downs and eventually led to $15.13 million being owed to the creditors.
The multi-continent production was largely filmed in Australia and the footage was seized since the creditors were not paid and the movie would not be eligible for millions in Australian rebates if the production could not complete the film — which was 90% finished. The film languished for about a year and the creditors were finally paid off and Corsan invested an estimated additional $1.5 million to complete the film. Corsan finally put the troubled Singularity onto the market at Cannes in 2014 and renamed it The Lovers. IFC picked up US rights for a VOD release and released the movie at their IFC Center in NYC and did not report its box office numbers.
Overseas markets in Russia and Lebanon were the only reported theatrical grosses at just $53,899.