Career Highlights

• SON OF RAMBOW takes place in 1980s Britain, and tells the hilarious tale of a sheltered youth's experience with his very first film, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, and his plot to make his own action epic
• The film is written and directed by Garth Jennings, whose last film was A HITCHHIKER"S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
• Jennings and his production partner Nick Goldsmith, who produces, formed the production group Hammer & Tongs in the early 90s in the UK
• Hammer & Tongs started out directing Music Videos, and recently have made videos for bands such as Blur and Vampire Weekend

Career Overview

Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith are the British writers, directors and producers behind the Hammer & Tongs production group. Jennings and Goldsmith met while attending art school in England and launched their production company in the 1990s. The pair’s original goal was to put together a solid creative team, have some fun, and make music videos that would be aired on MTV. Over the next decade that’s exactly what they did; the two are best known their unique and often humorous music videos for groups such as Fatboy Slim and REM. Hammer & Tongs built a large client reel for their music videos and also got into writing, directing and producing commercials, they had no intention of transitioning into feature films.

In 2005, the film The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was offered to the team after a recommendation from director Spike Jonze. The pair had their doubts but Jennings wrote the screenplay and was signed on as director while Goldsmith was signed as producer. The film was a success and in 2007 Jennings wrote and directed his second feature film, Son of Rambow. The film revolved around a pair of boys in the 1980s who use a home video camera to make their own sequel to the Sylvester Stallone vehicle, Rambo: First Blood. It was a huge success at the Sundance Film Festival and caused a bidding war to develop over the film’s distribution rights.

Our Interview

Jennings and Goldsmith join host Zack Sherwood to discuss Son of Rambow and the path that led to the creation of their own production company, Hammer & Tongs. The pair also take questions from students at The University of the District of Columbia regarding the theme for Son of Rambow, the transition from directing music videos to feature films, and what sets Son of Rambow apart from other films.