Some of the ground rent for a film set on a Lake Benmore reserve has been written off by the Waitaki District Council as part of an agreement reached between the film's maker, South Vineyard, and its creditors.
The Wellington-based film company announced plans for Kingdom Come, a film on the life of Jesus Christ, in 2008, choosing Falstone Reserve, used for camping and owned by the council, to re-create the 3000-year-old Galilee village and harbour of Capernaum.
The set was supposed to be removed in November 2009 after filming, but the global financial crisis hit, filming never started and the set remains in place.
South Vineyard still hoped to produce the film and continued to be billed rent by the council.
The council considered the debt as an in-committee item, with the public excluded, at its last council meeting in Otematata and the Otago Daily Times asked it what the decision was.
Council chief executive Michael Ross said yesterday the council had agreed to write off $114,687 in rent.
However, the council had also collected $134,542 from South Vineyard.
Mr Ross said that when the film set was built, the council expected to get rent for only about a year to 18 months before the film was completed and it was dismantled.
However, it continued to bill rent for the site at the same rate negotiated before the set was built.
''The bill just kept climbing,'' Mr Ross said.
In 2011, faced with court action, South Vineyard reached a settlement with 275 creditors owed $5.8 million. Creditors accepted a $2 million ''full and final settlement'' from the production company. Mr Ross said the council, as just one of the creditors, was bound by the agreement reached and had now written off the remainder of the debt.
That had not adversely affected the council.
''Because the site has been occupied a lot longer, we have actually received more than we expected [in rent],'' he said.
While the company was still looking for funding to make the film, Mr Ross was unsure if or when it would go ahead.
The set at Falstone has about 100 facades and a jetty out into Lake Benmore. Although the set was to be dismantled once filming finished, it was hoped the jetty would remain for lake users.
