Film Wisconsin wasn’t the only one shocked by Axium International’s Jan. 10 filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy dissolution in Los Angeles.
Axium had been “imminently expected” to open a branch office in Milwaukee, said Scott Robbe, Film Wisconsin executive director, and it had a three year contract, paid in advance, in anticipation of a barrage of Wisconsin production business.
Axium employees received Emails telling them the company had “a liquidity crisis” that forced it to close operations in L.A. New York, Toronto and London.
Axium is the entertainment industry’s third-largest payroll services and accounting firm.
Axium VP Jeff Begun said payrolls the company had been processing were being moved to competitors Cast & Crew Entertainment Services and Entertainment Partners. Robbe anticipates one of those two companies will “immediately” open in Milwaukee.
“We have worked it out so it will be seamless for clients,” Begun said.
“[Axium] sent out an Email that said everyone needs to go home and not go back to work, because the bank had frozen the accounts and we were no longer in business,” said Randy Klinenberg, chief of Axium’s rights-management software unit RightsMax.
Axium provided payroll services for the films “Grace Is Gone,” “The Savages,” “Feast of Love” and “Babel,” among others.
