EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has partnered with The Brit List to profile some of the emerging writers who have made this year’s ranking of the best unproduced UK film and TV projects. Launched in 2007, The Brit List has previously featured projects including The King’s Speech and Responsible Child. In this piece, we sit down with Abraham Adeyemi, who has made the list with Chasing The Night.
Chasing The Night sees former lovers Fatima and Leon meeting for dinner, but neither wants the evening to end when the meal is finished. “One more drink” is the start of a night that sees the pair take in various nightspots, while talking – and not talking – about their lives and the feelings they have for each other.
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù (My Father’s Shadow) and Deborah Ayorinde (Them) star in the short film, which was written and directed by Abraham Adeyemi. The two stars and the writer-director hunkered down to workshop how the short could work in feature-length form.
Adeyemi tells Deadline his two leads had both gone into making the original short film expecting it to lead to full-length movie. “They both entered the process expecting, or even assuming, that I had plans for a feature. Ṣọpẹ́ said ‘You know that you should make a feature of this, right.’ When Deborah joined the process and we went for dinner, she said the same thing: ‘So, you’re doing a feature?’”
That led to the trio settling in to work out what the longer form of the story looked like. “I said to them ‘Here’s the deal, if you guys give me three days of your time, we will eat, drink and talk. If at the end of those three days there is a story that we are all excited to tell, I’ll write it.”
Adeyemi delivered on his promise, resulting in the screenplay for Chasing The Night. He says: “I didn’t waste time trying to get a production company. I knew the best version of this script would occur if I didn’t pause.”
The script was actually penned while post production was underway on Adeyemi’s previous short, No More Wings. That film became a festival favorite, winning best narrative short at Tribeca. Starring Ivanno Jeremiah and Parys Jordon, it is a chamber piece about two south London friends, one of whom is moving out of the area where they both grew up. It was made through Adeyemi’s Creative Blue Balls label, which is also the banner for Chasing The Night, alongside Film4 and Carbon Films.
The Chasing The Night feature sees Fatima and Leon meet once more. The geography has changed, moving the story from London to Athens where both of them are on the last night of their respective trips to Greece. There will be Easter eggs for people who enjoyed the short, but the movie will exist as a standalone story.
Of course, the talent won’t know if they can reprise their roles in a Chasing The Night film until there is a greenlight, but they are clearly fully behind the project, which Adeyemi will direct. The trio even have a group chat about the project called ‘Say Yes’ (named after the Floetry song).
“I don’t want a future that doesn’t have them involved in it, but I also have to be objective and understand the realities of the industry,” Adeyemi says. “You can’t control everything, but I’m very grateful to have two brilliant actors who are professionally doing so well, and who are passionate about this story.”
The post Abraham Adeyemi Enlists Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù & Deborah Ayorinde For ‘Chasing The Night’ Feature Adaptation — Brit List 2025 appeared first on Deadline.
