They spent their childhoods shooting movies for the pure joy of it. Now, the Kinnane brothers of Adamsville have one of the hottest movies in the world.

The Kinnanes — Charles, Daniel, Patrick, Brendan, Peter, John, Wil and brother-in-law Jeffrey Azize — recently released "Home Team," a family movie starring comedian Kevin James, under their Kinnane Brothers company. It's about Sean Payton, the former New Orleans Saints head coach who led the team to a Superbowl victory in 2010.

The film follows Payton's life for the year he was suspended for his role in the NFL Bountygate scandal, and how he used the time away from the pros to coach youth football and along the way, reconnect with his son Connor. The screenplay was written by Chris Titone, the brother-in-law of actor Adam Sandler, one of the brothers' childhood movie heroes, and also stars Rob Schneider. Sandler served as producer.

"Home Team" premiered on Netflix on Friday, Jan. 28, and was instantly a hit. It was the ranked the number one movie on Netflix for two consecutive weeks and  hit the top 10 in 90 countries worldwide.

"It was crazy," said Charles Kinnane, who co-directed the film along with brother Dan and with much help from the other brothers.

"We knew there would be an audience for it, but the response was huge. It's just been amazing."

The movie is by far the largest the Kinnanes have directed to date, but their roots in cinema go back years.

Many farm coast residents are familiar with the brothers, who now range in age from 38 to 21. They grew up in Little Compton and spent their formative years shooting movies around town.

"It was always kind of just what we did for fun," Charles said. "Our grandparents had this old VHS camera, and we would just recreate our favorite movies. Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Happy Madison. We would film them with our cousins, a lot of neighborhood kids, and show them down in the basement or outside."

Encouraged by Little Compton teachers George Mullins, Carol Belair and others, Charles ended up working on documentaries in New York. Encouraged by Azize, he brought all the brothers back together, formed the company, and moved home about five years ago. Their office is in the old Stone Bridge Dishes building on Main Road in Adamsville.

Big break

The Kinnanes' break was set up a few years ago, when James saw some of the brothers' short films and documentaries and reached out through a mutual friend.

"He engaged us, and we ended up shooting about 50 short films with him" during the early quarantine days of the pandemic.

"Kevin said, 'Hey if you want to quarantine together we can build a little bubble and keep working.' We pretty much lived with him."

Sandler, a friend of James, saw some of the resulting shorts and offered him the lead role in Home Team, while the brothers were brought in as directors. Filming in New Orleans ran from Spring and wrapped that July. It was a huge learning experience, a lot of fun, and a huge turning point, Charles said.

"This was really an opportunity for us. Kevin and Adam took a shot on us and gave us a huge opportunity. Dan said it was amazing that we watched Happy Madison movies over and over again growing up, and to be on the set and working with them was unreal. They were so great to us. They could not have been nicer, and we just tried to have fun."

As for the movie, Charles said he's supremely proud of it.

"There's not a lot of movies that the whole family can watch, and this is one."

The brothers have lots of ideas in the pipeline, and are working on a few scripts that they hope to shoot in the Little Compton area. One is based in a small seaside town, so they're hopeful they can make the project happen here, where they once filmed on an old VHS recorder.

"It would be so cool to do it here," he said. "We're pretty excited."