The film "producer" Patrick Andrew, known as the Hollywood con man, also announced the filming of a series in Lanzarote in 2020. The series called 'Marked-The Unforgiven', was scheduled to be filmed from January 11 to April 23, 2021 on the island, although the production never took place.
In addition, the production company announced the holding of a press conference in Lanzarote to promote the series in December 2020, which, after all the marketing, also did not take place.
According to several national media outlets these days, the man was posing as a fake film producer to deceive various actors, promoters and even hotels, specifically on the Costa del Sol. In one of the hotels in Malaga, he left 5,000 euros unpaid, reports el Diario de Sevilla. His goal was to scam thousands of euros with films and series that were never released.
The alleged producer landed in Spain in 2017, with the deceptive production company Wanda-Halcyon, with which he launched up to seven series titles, including the one that was to be filmed in Lanzarote.
As several media outlets report, he began his first scams in 2019, in which several actors such as Manuel Villamuela became his victims. According to what he confessed to La Sexta, "he asked me for 800 euros. I gave it to him, because everything seemed credible." The actor acknowledges that "at first everything was going very well, they sent me emails and contacted me. But overnight they stopped talking. The pandemic came and they kept stretching it out," he says. "The pandemic was his great excuse to justify that nothing came out," he points out.
"The pandemic was his great excuse to justify that nothing came out"
In addition, he was not the only one to suffer his deceptions. To another of those scammed, Pedro Antonio Aguilar, he assured him that he would experience a filming in Hollywood and that he would pay him 2,500 euros for image rights. The actress Myr Garrido, in a recent interview on La Sexta, confirmed that Andrew "promised her that she was going to be a Hollywood star." "He offered me to be the protagonist of a series with the Hollywood cachet, but it was a lie," she says. "The suspicions began when there was a week left for filming to begin and the plane tickets did not arrive," she adds. He even told her that "he was going to marry her," she tells the network.
"He offered me to be the protagonist of a series with the Hollywood cachet, but it was a lie"
The scammer used media coverage to carry out his frauds. In addition, he took advantage of his false contacts with directors and actors of great importance to add credibility to his productions. He presented himself as an influential film producer, even appearing photographed next to the director Steven Spielberg, an image that ultimately turned out to be modified, since the silhouette of his companion was actually a wax figure.
His deceptions went so far that during one of his castings, he announced the participation of Antonio Banderas, an allusion that the Malaga actor denied, La Sexta reports.
