In 2023, first-time director Raine Allen-Miller stole our hearts with Rye Lane, a wildly inventive rom-com shot on the streets of South East London. And now, for her next cinematic trick, Variety are reporting that Allen-Miller is set to follow that David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah starrer up with The Roots Manoeuvre, a self-penned joint that will see Allen-Miller take to the streets of London once again — this time for a daring heist comedy.
Produced by Amazon MGM Studios' Orion Pictures and BBC Film, The Roots Manoeuvre is not an unexpected biopic about British rap legend Roots Manuva (though we'd very much still be here for it if it was!), but rather a movie that follows a young woman who uses the ruse of a luxury wedding to cover up an audacious attempt to retrieve a stolen artefact. Who said young woman is, we do not know. What said artefact is, we also do not know. But we do know that if that one bit in Rye Lane where Yas and Dom go on the rob to retrieve Yas' copy of A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory is anything to go by, then the chances of our new heisting heroine's audacious scheme going according to plan is slim-to-zero.
Having earned two BAFTA nominations, a whopping 16 BIFA nods, and a coveted spot on Empire's rundown of the best films of 2023, Allen-Miller's directorial debut Rye Lane has set the bar incredibly high for the Brit filmmaker's sophomore effort. We'll see whether she can clear it when we Witness The Roots Manoeuvre — coming soon to a cinema near you.