Quentin Tarantino and Kylie Minogue Film New Movie in South Wales

Quentin Tarantino, Kylie Minogue, and the Pint That Shocked Porthcawl

The bar at the Ship and Castle is a boat. It was hauled from Weymouth by Jamie Adams’s father decades ago, and now Quentin Tarantino was pulling up a stool behind it, pint in hand, chatting with a childhood friend of the filmmaker’s. Adams admitted the scene felt like “an out of body experience.”

“It’s all very surreal and beautiful,” he said.

Adams has managed to bring the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction director, pop icon Kylie Minogue, and Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA to the seaside town of Porthcawl to star in his new film, Tangled Up in Blue. The arrival of the stars earlier this year caused a buzz in the south Wales community, and AOL noted that this is not Adams’s first brush with Hollywood royalty—he previously worked with Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey on the 2019 film Bittersweet Symphony.

But Tangled Up in Blue is different. It is deeply personal, shot largely in Adams’s hometown and the Welsh capital of Cardiff, with a cast that blurs the line between directing legends and acting icons. The film follows a talent manager—played by Tarantino—who has spent 40 years managing legends but finds himself stranded at a hotel bar, caught between an old flame and a lost soul.

Kylie Minogue and Quention Tarantino walking along a grassy coastline with a film crew following them — Photo: bbc.co.uk

The Boat Bar and the First-Time Visitor

Tarantino had never been to Wales before Adams invited him. Jamie Adams said he was very excited about coming. Filming took place in June at locations including the Parkway Hotel, but the Ship and Castle—where Adams’s dad once ran the pub—served as a centerpiece. “I’ve got Quentin Tarantino having a pint with me in my dad’s old pub, talking to Neil, one of my old pals, who I’ve known since I was like eight years old,” Adams recalled. The image captures the disarming collision of global cinema and local community.

Half Welsh, Fully Home

Getting Minogue on board was, by Adams’s account, even easier than securing Tarantino. The singer has described herself as “half Welsh,” and her family hails from near Porthcawl; her mother, Carol Jones, and Welsh-speaking grandmother, Nain Millie Jones, emigrated from Maesteg in Bridgend county to Australia in the 1950s. Despite those roots, she told Adams she rarely got to visit, so she jumped at the chance. Minogue, who became one of the world’s most famous pop stars after leaving the Australian soap Neighbours in the late 1980s, thus returned to the landscape of her ancestry for the shoot.

French New Wave on the Welsh Coast

Adams shoots quickly, using an improvisational style where much of the film is created spontaneously rather than from a pre-written script. He shot a movie in France in a single week using this method, and Tarantino thoroughly enjoyed the process, describing it as reminding him of French New Wave cinema that emerged from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. “I said I’d love to do one that was a little bit more personal to me, and actually shot in my hometown,” Adams added. The approach gave the stars freedom over their characters in a way that might not be possible on other productions, allowing Tarantino to act rather than direct and Minogue to explore dramatic territory far from her pop persona.

The Cup Run That United a Town

Adams likened the project to a small football team on a cup run, saying it “brought people together in the story.” The effect rippled through Porthcawl long after the cameras stopped rolling. Jamie Adams explained it is like there’s still people that would stop him and kind of want to talk about their favourite Tarantino film or Kylie’s records. For a town that rarely sees this level of cinematic production, the shoot left what Adams calls “this beautiful haze that is the heart of this film.” The film’s narrative itself mirrors this sense of dislocation—a manager stranded between past glory and present uncertainty, shot in the very locations that mean the most to its creator.

Adams Redefines Stars Beyond Roles

While no official release date is set, Adams is aiming for summer 2027, and he hopes Cardiff will host a premiere with the star cast in attendance. For American viewers, the film represents a rare collision of Hollywood talent and Welsh regional identity. The tension between Adams’s improvisational artistry and the commercial weight of his cast is exactly what makes the project compelling: he is showing what these stars are capable of when not confined to what they are known for. Jamie Adams said he thinks you’ve got to be very grateful that you were able to work with them. It was about bringing a spirit a joy to south Wales.

Whether Tangled Up in Blue becomes a festival darling or a streaming staple, the image of Tarantino nursing a pint in a boat-bar in Porthcawl will remain a singular moment in film culture—a reminder that even the most massive industry can pause for a drink in a Welsh seaside pub.

Disclaimer: This article is based on available public records at the time of publication.

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