Actor, writer and director Aml Ameen is plotting a sequel to festive film Boxing Day, as well as thriller project Night And Day, here are the details.
While Britain has produced a number of films that grew into festive favourites like Scrooge, Love, Actually and Arthur Christmas, there are a number of festive films that flew under the radar, like Eddie Izzard’s Lost Christmas.
One such film is Boxing Day, which was released in 2019. Notable as being the first British Christmas film with an almost entirely black cast. It came from actor and writer Aml Ameen, who directed the film and co-wrote the script with Bruce Purnell.
He also starred as Melvin Mackenzie, a successful author who returns home to confront his chaotic family and his past. Aja Naomi King played Lisa, a Hollywood casting director who accompanies Ameen’s Melvin home to face Georgia, his chart-topping pop-star ex, played by Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Melvin Gregg and Stephen Dillane co-starred.
Chatting to Deadline, Ameen said that the wheels are already turning to get Boxing Day 2 into production. His producing partners
Matthew Zamias and Dominique Telson are back on board for the sequel, and he hopes to get King, Pinnock and the rest of the cast back, subject to scheduling.
Ameen said that “everyone is really excited about” returning for the sequel, and also revealed that he has some American comedy legends in mind to play Lisa’s extended family, saying “you bring in the British Caribbean family and the African American family from the South, and it’s like a Meet The Fockers”.
He confirmed that the new film is set in three locations – London, America and Ghana.
Ameen has also written another script with Purnell, a thriller called Night And Day. The antithesis of Boxing Day, Ameen said that the plot is “set in the 1950s, 1970s and 2025. … And it follows the span of a family that got into crime in Grenada in a particular era”.
Boxing Day is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray.
