A true story set in Flin Flon is on the road to becoming a screenplay.
Former resident Stan Borley’s life story reads like a thriller novel.
“I was raised in Flin Flon by an alcoholic father in a dysfunctional family,” recalls Borley. “I was pretty beat up emotionally. I got kicked out of school and got messed up with alcohol.”
When petty crime and alcohol weren’t enough to numb the pain, Borley moved onto bigger things and began smuggling drugs into Canada, and doing them himself.
From there his dark past got even darker when he got involved smuggling black-market gold in Southeast Asia.
After years of high crime he made an attempt to turn his life around.
“I tried to get cleaned up from drugs and crime and tried to be a family man, but I couldn’t shake the alcohol, and I lost everything.”
After years of struggling, Borley went through Alcoholics Anonymous and has turned his life around.
“I hit step four in AA and had an awakening,” he says of the program’s process of digging deep within one’s self. “I’m a good guy now.”
In 2010 Borley published The Reluctant Villain, a novella depicting his life story and the adventures of other criminals in Flin Flon and around the world.
“I found out while I was in high school, and when I went back as an adult, that I had a bit of a gift for writing,” says Borley.
The skill to write aside, the author had a unique tale to tell. While full of dark, disturbing details, the story is also one of humorous and entertaining charades.
After the success of his first book, Borley began studying screenwriting online and worked on several drafts of his story, improving it over three years.
“I did many different drafts, entered contests with feedback, implemented that feedback and then would enter another contest,” he explains. “It was rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.”
Eventually the screenplay version of the story, titled The 4th Step, paying homage to AA’s fourth step, was finalized. Borley recently began the task of moving the story from paper to screen.
To date the screenplay has won several awards, including the Rising Star Award and Award of Excellence at the Canadian International Film Festival. It took second place for best feature film at the Winnipeg Real to Reel Film Festival, and was nominated for the Humanitarian Award in Fresh Voices, a screenplay competition in the United States.
Borley says he has had a couple of different studios interested in producing the film, including Vancouver-based TNT Star Entertainment that will allow him a hand in the production.
On the road to the big screen, a budget that runs at half a million dollars Canadian has been outlined for the project.
Borley and his team are currently fundraising as they work to create a quality trailer to promote the project. Private donations are now being accepted through the crowd-funding site Indiegogo. Borley’s project can be found at
indiegogo.com/projects/the-4th-step#/story.
The next step in the project is accessing government grant money and scouting locations for filming.
“We’d like to do some of the filming in Flin Flon, but it will all depend on the budget,” Borley says.
He expects that much of the filming will take place in the Penticton, BC, area, the setting for much of the storyline and a community near his current home in Summerland, BC.
While the price tag of the full project is significant, the film can move forward step by step as funding is available.
With an additional connection to his hometown, actor Jared Abrahamson, originally from Flin Flon and now living in Vancouver, is confirmed to play a role in the film.
The compelling story is sure to thrill audiences in the film format as it has in the book.
“I hope my story will help lead others out of addiction and the darkness of the criminal underworld to peace and serenity,” says Borley.
