Petrol bombs, drugs and Bradley from S Club 7: inside the wild 00s hood movie that the police seized — SkimNews
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- Colin Browne and D, leaders of Hackney's Love of Money gang, wrote and produced the 2005 British film 'Breakin' the Cycle' while Browne was serving a prison sentence for cocaine smuggling, then directed it after his release
- The cast included Bradley McIntosh from S Club 7 and rapper Lethal Bizzle; McIntosh, trying to escape his clean tween-pop image, took his first serious dramatic role and 'delivers something amazing,' according to editor Lewis Albrow
- During filming on an east London estate, the crew were threatened with petrol bombs by locals who thought they were filming a music video on their patch; they left and returned with an entourage, per McIntosh
- Browne and D continued running their drug operation while making the film — 'they were running two businesses at the same time,' Albrow says, keeping it hidden from cast and crew they believed were ex-gangsters
- Browne was shot and stabbed at age 38 shortly after filming finished; D was later arrested and imprisoned, and the Met police seized a rough cut, with the raw footage considered lost for nearly 20 years
- Lewis Albrow, the film's editor, has now made BBC Radio 4 podcast 'Shadow World: Breakin' the Cycle' based on 20 years of maintained contact with D, who 'came out a changed man' after prison
- A specialist recently resurrected the raw footage from an old hard drive — 'that was a wonderful day,' Albrow says — and he has been editing it for six months with hopes of finally releasing the completed film
Why it matters: The film 'Breakin' the Cycle' sat unfinished and unseen for 20 years because its lead creator was murdered and the Met police seized the rough cut — its recovery now means a genuine, self-financed crime drama made by men living that life could finally reach audiences, alongside a podcast that documents the gap between the film's hopeful message about escaping crime and the reality that its makers never fully did.
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