Fayetteville police officer is also part-time movie producer

Dunn, N.C. — John Sorie uses his day job as a Fayetteville police officer as inspiration to make movies.

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Fayetteville officer is making a film

Sorie, a part-time movie producer who lives in Dunn, is shooting his first short film, “Clover,” about a cop who abuses drugs and ends up owing the mafia money.

“He took the money from evidence to pay off the mafia people and got caught…got sent to prison,” Sorie said of the main character. “You can imagine the life of a cop in prison, who’s probably put a lot of these people away.”

Sorie’s favorite film genres involve action, military and the police.  “If you are going to create anything, do something that you know,” Sorie said.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Sorie said he felt compelled to join the police department but has also always felt a passion to make movies.

“As a police officer, I deal with people every day and a lot of it is about putting out little fires in people’s lives,” Sorie said. “As a director or as a producer of any kind of movie – whether it be big or small – it’s a lot of that.”

But making movies isn’t cheap. Sorie said he fed most of the cast and crew for the film with $5 sandwiches from a neaby Subway. “So that’s how I paid my cast,” he said.

Sorie has also used loans and volunteers like many other short film directors in North Carolina. He said he doesn’t want to be rich and famous, but just wants to make a living doing what he loves.

“As a creative person and somebody who likes to make movies, that would be the dream for me…to be able to turn that into a career,” Sorie said.

Sorie hopes to finish “Clover” by October and then submit it to various short film festivals across the state.