A London filmmaker has hailed the dedication of fans after they helped fund his debut sci-fi feature.

Justin Trefgarne, 40, wrote and directed Narcopolis and convinced actors Jonathan Pryce, Robert Bathurst and Elliot Cowan to star in it.

Four and a half years after starting the project, he has secured a cinema release for later this month.

Narcopolis was shot in London and is set in a future where drugs are legal. Cowan plays a policeman whose job is to protecting the business of narcotics companies that control the markets.

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Mr Trefgarne told the Standard: “I had been at Working Title films and was lucky enough to work with people like Joe Wright and Paul Greengrass. I had this idea for a film and it was people like them who encouraged me to pursue it.”

He secured initial investment and turned to crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise the final £20,000 of the budget, which eventually totalled at “under £1 million”.

He persuaded Pryce to take part after a meeting at a north London pub. He added: “By the time we had Jonathan, Robert and Elliot on board it helped attract even more investment. What I discovered about these kinds of actors is that they just want to make good stuff — it’s not about the budget. The £20,000 from Kickstarter pretty much completed the shoot.

“Smaller films have really struggled to get funding. Kickstarter makes films like this possible. It’s empowering and makes you think more about the fans and what they want. It also shows British films can do this kind of genre. We are sometimes a bit shy with sci-fi.”

Narcopolis is out on September 25.