Ben Affleck will soon start filming for his upcoming movie, Hypnotic.
Initially, the filming was set to commence last summer. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, it was pushed back to next month. According to IMDB, Ben Affleck is the only confirmed cast member in Hypnotic.
Ben Affleck movie ‘Hypnotic’ at the center of a controversy
The producers of the film filed a lawsuit against Chubb National, an insurance company for fraud, breach of contract, and six other complaints.
They claimed that the insurance company is refusing to extend the coverage of its policy to accommodate COVID-19.
Ben Affleck, Robert Rodriguez insured for $58 million
The producers of Hypnotic purchased a cast insurance policy with $58 million, which would be paid out if something happens to Affleck or to director Robert Rodriguez. This covers illness or even the deaths of Affleck and his director.
The policy has an expiration date of Oct. 28, 2020, which would’ve been enough time had the production commenced on schedule. But since it was pushed back, the producers are asking the insurance company to extend the expiration date of the policy to March 21, 2021.
Chubb National refuses to extend producers’ policy
However, Chubb National refused to extend the expiration date and take into consideration the delays in production.
According to Variety, the extension is significant because the policy, which was issued in October 2019, didn’t carry a COVID-19 exclusion. This means that if something happens to Ben Affleck and Rodriguez, the insurance company would pay the producers $58 million.
Now that the deadly virus has hit the world, insurance companies are no longer selling policies that would cover losses due to COVID-19. As such, if the producer’s original policy expires, they would no longer be able to replace it with another one.
The producers are arguing that if COVID-19-related issues won’t be part of their policy, production cannot push through. They are, reportedly, planning to take the production team to Vancouver next month.
Chubb National explained their decision to refuse the extension. They said that this is to make sure that their policy would match with the other policies being issued.
But the producers’ attorney, Kirk Pasich accused Chubb National of refusing their request as part of an alleged scheme.
“[As part of a ] pattern and practice of conduct as part of a broad scheme to save itself tens of millions of dollars (or more), in conscious disregard of its insureds’ known rights,” he said.
Ben Affleck has yet to comment on the issue.
Images used courtesy of Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)