Sometimes You Dance With The Devil

A good many years I saw one of the most original British vampire movies ever made. It is called BLOOD. 

( Terrible image for a sleeve ). 

Produced by Simon Markham and Colin Pons it was shot in Yorkshire on a tiny budget in the late 90's.

It starred Adrian Rawlins and Lee Blakemore. If it broke through I was sure it would be the start of a great career for Lee as an actress.

I wanted to release it in 5-10 cinemas in the UK and I had a UK broadcaster who said if I secured good reviews they would pay £25-50,000 for it. That's a good price for a low budget film. It could have sold well on video and DVD.

The filmmakers were I recall keen for me for me to take this on.

The problem was the sales agent originally wanted $200,000 advance for the UK.

I talked and talked for over a year and I got it down to $100,000. He was deluded I told him if he thought he could get that much for the UK. He told me he definitely would.

Even if I had sold it for the top price to TV and it did well on DVD, with the costs of release I would have a loss.

Oh yes. And I didn't have $100,000.

A smaller sum and I would have taken it and the filmmakers would have had a release in their own country. 

Releasing only British & Irish films and ones most other distributors didn't want was a road I went down for 18 years that was never paved gold. Mud and shit most of the time.

The film was never released in the UK and I bet most of you have never seen it.

The tragedy, and it is heart-breaking, is that the director/ writer Charly Cantor never made another film.

The reason. He died far, far, far too young just after finishing the edit. 

One of the most original talents I have ever met.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190273/combined