The Maze Runner and I May Destroy You star Aml Ameen has begun production on his feature-length directorial debut, Boxing Day, a UK based holiday rom-com. How to Get Away with Murder alum Aja Naomi King will star with Ameen alongside member of the British girl group, Little Mix, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and Golden Globe winner, Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The filmmakers are saying that this is the first UK holiday film featuring an all-Black cast.
The script, which was inspired by Ameen’s diary, was co-written by Ameen and Bruce Purnell, who will also star in the film. The story will follow Melvin, a British author living in America who returns home to London for Christmas to introduce his American fiancée Lisa to his eccentric British-Caribbean family. Their relationship is put to the test when she discovers the life that her fiancé left behind.
BFI and Film4 are financing the project with Warner Bros. Pictures handling distribution in the UK & Ireland. Ameen and Purnell will produce through their Studio113 label with Matthew G. Zamias, DJ Films’ Damian Jones, Dominique Telson and Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor.
“It is such an honour to be teaming up with Warner Bros. Pictures, Film4 and BFI to bring Black British Culture to the world in this universal holiday rom-com,” Ameen said. “It’s long been a dream of mine to capture films that reflect the wonderfully multi-cultural city that raised me while sharing stories from the diary of my life.”
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