Staff Sergeant Reginald Barnes (Tobias Truvillion) is dishonorably discharged after a soldier makes a grave mistake under his watch. Dakota Ambrose (Zach McGowan) is a politician and recruits the discharged Sergeant for a covert military operation, giving his life purpose again. Together, along with the help of Jeff (Chris Tardio), they work towards taking down a criminal element that traffics children, all while FBI Special Agent Kensington (Taryn Manning) keeps tabs on their every step.

“I loved the role and playing an FBI agent. She had a lot of layers to her and was very human,” commented Manning who can be recognized for a number of her roles in previous projects including Orange Is the New Black, Hawaii Five-0, Sons of Anarchy, and more. “We had a nice tight unit, and everyone showed up to do the work,” added Truvillion, who can also be recognized for his past work in Hitch, Brooklyn's Finest, and Delirious.

Also in the cast of Sanctioning Evil are Tasha Lawrence, Carrie Kim, Kresh Novakovic, and more. It’s written by Kyle and Lance Sharp and directed by Ante Novakovic.

Sanctioning Evil and the Criminal Element

“The subject matter… it’s hard to talk about. It’s actually a very huge problem,” commented Manning on the criminal element present in Sanctioning Evil, being the trafficking of children that takes place. “The movie doesn’t target anybody, but if it did, we probably wouldn’t have even been able to release it. That’s how much people protect this type of sickness.”

“You think about the film, it has a real authenticity to it. There’s a lot of humanity to it,” added Truvillion, commenting on how his character works against that type of criminal element despite his background leaving him isolated from society. “None of us are perfect… there’s a lot of gray space, and you think of people who are trying to find a way or somebody that’s been stripped of the ability to have an income and these things. This plays into this kind of storyline. You can relate to it on many different levels. A man who wants to provide or a person who had love and light taken from them. It has such a dynamic to it. People can really relate to missing somebody or not being able to accomplish the goals that they want in life because of a system, or something that is hindering outside of your control… this is entertainment, but this is stuff that needs to be brought to the surface… people might not even think that this is happening and might want to turn a blind eye, but now we have a conversation about it and open up the dialogue.”

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From Script to Screen

Taryn Manning Sanctioning Evil
Vertical Entertainment

Manning mentioned that what initially attracted her to the role was the ability to play an FBI agent, and also noted that the way the script “jumped off the page,” was another contributing factor.

“Sometimes scripts are great, but sometimes they don’t translate well on a film… it really translated, it really jumped off the page to the screen. It got better. All the nuances and all the little thing, there’s a lot of hidden things in there, it got more thought-provoking,” said Manning.

There are also action sequences in the film, oftentimes taking place with Truvillion's character, that translate well to the screen. “I love them because it was a collaboration. You have the director, and then we kind of added with me what would feel right, then we had our stunt coordinator who was an ace in combat and things of that nature… It’s so much fun, and it’s just another kind of dynamic character to the piece, as that little extra thing that keeps the audience engaged,” said Truvillion.

“I worked with Zach before, and I’ve worked with a couple of the producers and the director before… it was just great energy on set,” added Manning. Though the ability to have that great energy on set didn't come without its challenges, with both Manning and Truvillion having to endure production during the pandemic. "We actually shot this during the lockdown," explained Truvillion, "we were the first production in New Jersey to come back... that whole entire time, we weren't sure what's going on in the world... we were all sitting down doing other things in life, and then to come back it was like, 'Let's go.'"

Sanctioning Evil comes to us from Vertical Entertainment and is available as of October 7, 2022.