Simon Pegg Film's Production Company Collapses

AITA Films, the production company behind the Simon Pegg film "Angels In The Asylum," is closing down. The company has been in administration for over a year due to a financing dispute that halted the film's production in February 2025. It will now shut its doors, leaving creditors owed £3.8 million ($5 million).

The closure stems from unresolved financing issues with John Cairns and Parkland Pictures. AITA Films claims funding promised by Cairns and Parkland Pictures did not arrive, and a subsequent personally guaranteed bridging loan has complicated the project's intellectual property. Despite proposals to resolve the IP issue, discussions have failed, forcing the administrator's hand.

John Cairns disputes this, stating Parkland Pictures' role was as a sales agent, not a financier, and that production began without full funding. Meanwhile, the British government's Redundancy Payments Service is addressing some of the £600,000 ($800,000) owed to employees, though workers expect to receive only a fraction of their due pay.

"Angels In The Asylum," inspired by true events, stars Katherine Waterston, Minnie Driver, and Simon Pegg, who also served as an executive producer but was not involved in the finances. The film tells the story of women forcibly confined in Surrey's Long Grove Asylum in the 1930s.