Caribbean news. Film director Rommel Hall arrives in the UK for the premiere of his ground-breaking release “Keeping Up With The Joneses: The Movie”.
Rommel’s film is a comedy-thriller and is the first Caribbean film cinema premiere in the UK for 2014 and the first full feature film from Barbados ever to be shown in an official (BFI registered) cinema in Britain!
Arriving from Barbados at Gatwick Airport this morning, Rommel said “It is great to be here and to be one of the small but growing number of Caribbean film-makers to be getting recognition in the UK”.
KUWTJ: The Movie is a spin-off from the award-winning hit KUWTJ: The Series which has been shown on satellite and cable television every day in Britain since May 2013 and has been very popular with viewers. In the film the Jones family are kidnapped (having become famous after featuring in a reality show) but help is at hand when the brother-in-law and his friends go on a mission to save them!
Hot on the heels of Oscar success for British-Caribbean film director Steve McQueen, Rommel is hoping that the UK will warm to his first venture onto the big screen and said “It is daunting to know that KUWTJ: The Movie will be the first full feature film from Barbados ever to be screened at an official cinema in Britain. Ever since I started writing scripts in 2003, I have dreamed of getting a film abroad. We may not quite be at Oscar level yet but hope to follow in Steve McQueen’s footsteps one day”.
He also said “We were really happy with the response that we got to the film when it was released in Barbados. In fact the response was so large that the cinema had to extend the run. Likewise we hope that British audiences will respond similarly to this style of Caribbean humour”.
Keeping Up With The Joneses: The Movie is showing at the Drum Arts Centre in Birmingham on 20th March and also showing at the Stratford Picturehouse Cinema in London on 27th March.
