“It was my first time seeing the film. It’s still a bit early to say how I feel about seeing my life through the big screen, but all I can say is I loved it,” said Rasmussen.
The short film follows Isaac, played by Jass Beki, during his training to become a Royal Marine as he awaits deployment to Afghanistan. During that time, Isaac meets Jack Jones, played by Elan Butler, who’s desperate to prove his worth in the team and feel the rush of war.
However, when the dream of war is taken away by UK forces withdrawing from Afghanistan, they find a different kind of rush in crime.
According to a BBC report, in 2021 both Rasmussen and Jones were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to prison for conspiracy to supply and import class A drugs to the UK.
“The story we want to tell has crime, it has the Royal Marines, but it’s mostly a story about friendship,” said Matthieu Livingston, writer and director of Boys Club.
Livingston and Rasmussen met at a film festival in the UK, with Rasmussen working as a bartender during the event. Rasmussen explained he’d just got out of prison and told his story to the director, which led Livingston to want to turn it into a film.
Originally conceived as a documentary, the film was shot in a rock quarry in Portland on the Dorset coast where the environment helped visually show the scale and physicality put on young men during their training as Royal Marines.
The production team worked closely with Andy and Jacko, two Royal Marines who guided the actors to accurately portray the specific culture, language, and behaviour in the Royal Marines.
Jass Beki, who plays Isaac, said: “It was great to play a character that’s true and real. I loved the experience of playing a marine and getting into the nitty gritty to understand his story and experiences.”
Elan Butler, who plays Jack, explained what it was like to be guided by two Royal Marines during production: “It helps getting out of your acting and actually locking in.”
After a year of planning and meetings between the production team and Rasmussen, filming lasted five days in the last week of April this year.
Now, according to Ludo Aslangul, producer of Boys Club, the plan is to start a year-long festival cycle with the objective of using the short film as a pitch to turn the story into a feature.
“When you watch it, I think you can feel there’s a longer story involved. We did this to tell the story, but Ludo and I thought about this as a great platform to present what we want to do later,” said Livingston.
At the private screening, Aslangul announced a Kickstarter campaign that will help them raise money for the pre-production of the feature film.
“It’s a development or production fund to help the process of making the film,” said Aslangul.
The campaign aims to raise £25,000 by 13 November to support the pre-production costs such as developing the script, location funding, and casting directors.
The feature film will aim to dive deeper into Rasmussen’s story and the development from boys to marines, and the later separation as a consequence of their crimes.
“For me, Boys Club is ultimately a story about friendship, masculinity, and two men searching for the sense of purpose they thought they had already found,” said Livingston.