Temple's Marvin Gaye film stalls

It has emerged that Focus Features - who boarded the project earlier this year - is no longer involved in the film. 

Shooting stopped over a month ago, reportedly because of scheduling and location issues.

A well-placed source has told ScreenDaily that crew members have not yet been paid fully for their work on the film.

There are understood to be three weeks left on a nine-and-a-half-week shoot.

Speaking prior to the Cannes Film Festival, Sexual Healing producer Jimmy De Brabant sought to allay the uncertainty surrounding the film. He pointed to a cash flow problem with the American investor “that has lasted much longer than expected” but said this was now resolved. 

The producers are understood to have told the crew that the funding promised had not yet arrived but are urging patience.

Last month, Brendan Gleeson’s agent Teri Hayden confirmed that the actor (who plays Gaye’s friend and promoter Freddy Cousaert) was still attached, had been fully paid up to date and “remained fully committed to the project”.

The film looks at ex-Motown superstar Gaye’s years in Belgium – the time he spent living in the sleepy seaside town of Ostend in the early 1980s. Facing drug problems and tax bills, Gaye was considered a spent force but, against the odds, he recorded Midnight Love, one of his greatest albums.

Jesse L. Martin is playing Gaye - a role that Lenny Kravitz had originally been expected to take.