Worthing-based Michael Wearing is hoping his debut feature film Blood Orange Retribution could hit the screens this year after a successful trip to Cannes Film Festival.
00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to speak this afternoon to Michael Waring. Now, Michael, exciting times. You've got your debut feature film. Well, it's not quite complete yet, but it soon will be. You're hoping to get it screened somewhere, ideally this year. It's called Blood Orange Retribution, and it's about, well, a drug war, isn't it, in South London, South East London, and it draws on your experience.
00:2830 years in the Met, on the right side of the law, let's stress, but it draws on your experience, doesn't it?
00:35Yeah, I was a drugs intelligence officer at Peckham in South London, and obviously some of the things that I learnt there and dealt with there are used as my experience in the film.
00:51My whole career influenced the film in many respects. And don't forget, it was also the first film to be, to have scenes shot in North Cyprus, first feature film to have films.
01:03Oh, really?
01:04So we went to North Cyprus for five days and shot there.
01:08That's fabulous. And you're hoping to finish the film in Sussex, aren't you?
01:12Yeah, we're hoping to do the final scene, which unfortunately is a retake of one that didn't quite work out, but we've chosen Sussex location to do the final scene.
01:24Yeah. And it's so interesting what you were saying just now. I said to you that drug crime always seems to me a particularly evil crime.
01:31But you were talking about, you have to have a degree of understanding, don't you? And that's your experience, isn't it? Because these are people who are human beings who have made a mistake.
01:43Yeah, the actual drug addicts tend to be people who have made a mistake in life. Once they're addicted to the drug, it's very hard for them to get off it. And, you know, it is an illness. Addiction is an illness.
01:57And, you know, so I do have a lot of empathy with the actual addicts themselves. Of course, higher up the chain, there are dealers that have never touched drugs.
02:08You know, when I say never touched them, never actually used them for, you know, for themselves.
02:13But the real theme of the film is around that very point that there are no winners in the drugs game.
02:26And, you know, you can go up to the top and your life can be taken away very quickly. So it's a very interesting subject to write about and to make a film about.
02:38It's a full length feature, runs to 90 minutes on what you call a micro budget of $100,000. That still sounds pretty big. But obviously, hoping to recoup that.
02:49We are very satisfied that we will have deals. We had a very successful trip out to Cairns where we met with a lot of distributors.
02:58And, you know, the key one that we were after has indicated very strongly that once it's complete, he will be looking very positively at it.
03:10And then we've got other companies that have also shown an interest. So I'm totally satisfied we'll have multiple deals on the table.
03:17And it's a matter of choosing which one's right for us.
03:20Fantastic. Well, that sounds like a nice position to be in.
03:23Good luck with it all. And you must keep me posted. Let me know what happens.
03:26I look forward to it. Yeah, I will definitely keep you posted.
