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| Colin
Firth (Jamie)
Hugh Grant (PM) Liam Neeson (Daniel) Laura Linney (Sarah) Emma Thompson (Karen) Alan Rickman (Harry) Martine McCutcheon (Natalie) Rowan Atkinson Writer/Director:
Production
Dates:
Producers:
Scheduled
Release:
London premiere Nov 16
Others:
Region 2 DVD: 3/26/04
Distribution:
Preorder
tie-in book from:
Preorder soundtrack CD
Trailer:
Featurette:
Final poster:
|
Grant, being the bratty and bemused English schoolboy even in his 40s, claims he only wants to do ensembles now, if anything at all...."So, in a way, it's absolutely ideal to just come in and do a bit. There was no grand idea of sharing or diluting myself." In that spirit of NOT sharing, Grant had some sharp words for Firth, who so bested him on screen as a competing character in Bridget Jones's Diary. "I always hoped Colin would be bad," Grant says of Firth's acting in Love Actually, "and, indeed, he is!" Grant, of course, is kidding. He admires Firth. He just won't admit it. Firth, in a separate interview, gets serious, as is his wont....Firth's scenes with Lisbon actress Lucia Moniz are the most exuberantly romantic in the entire movie. "There's no subtlety here," Firth says. "Part of the reason we have to be so bold is that we had very little time to tell our story, each (of us). We would have four or five scenes in order to develop the whole concept of a story. You tend to have to use broader strokes. "And I was fortified by Richard Curtis in this, partly because (I trust) a man with his track record in storytelling success. I must say, I have never felt so little pressure on any film because there were so many of us and so many other stories and so many talented people around me. Nobody felt the film on his shoulders, so you could abandon yourself." The actors also believed,
Firth says,
they would be cut out if they screwed up. "I think most of us were
fairly
certain we'd be the first to go!"
As Jamie, a writer who unexpectedly finds love with a young Portuguese woman in the south of France, Colin Firth shot his scenes in Marseilles; here he anxiously waits at the door of her family home.   Excerpts from the intro to the Love Actually screenplay (by Richard Curtis, reprinted exclusively in the Telegraph on Oct 25, 2003) 
There is a scene in which Colin Firth and Lucia Moniz who plays Aurelia swim in an apparently deep lake. The truth is the lake was fine when we originally saw it, but by the time we arrived was 18 inches deep. Our two actors are kneeling and pretending to swim. In the rushes at the end of every take you can see them stand up and the water only comes up to their knees. During the filming, Colin was bitten by a vicious, malarial gadfly—his elbow swelled up like an avocado and were he not a saint, he would have sued us for the entire profits of the films. Helder Costa, who plays
Amelia’s
father, is probably Portugal’s greatest theatre director. It’s like
having
Trevor Nunn or Stephen. Daldry playing a bit-part in your film.
Unfortunately,
no one told me this so I spent the two days we were working together
giving
him really pathetic notes, and acting out how I wanted it to be and
saying,
"louder, louder" and "come on! Be better, better". And then the
morning
before he left he came downstairs and gave me a 400 page coffee-table
book
about his life, work and theatre company. So when you see the bit in
the
film with the Portuguese bloke in a string vest, please look at him
with
a little more respect than I did.
Songs by Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Justin Timberlake and Dido will be featured on the Love Actually soundtrack, due November 11th on J Records. "Without its music, Love Actually wouldn't work at all," says Curtis. "I know because I saw the film without the music and it was a shocker. It's the life and soul of the film. Joni Mitchell's extraordinary re-recording of 'Both Sides Now,' the words of youth rediscovered in her fifties—was always the core of Emma Thompson's whole story . . . I played Hugh Grant seven records to dance to, and he chose [the Pointer Sisters'] 'Jump' and now I can't imagine another song..." The Love Actually track listing:
Blue don't feel the Love Actually (mrib, Oct 9, 2003) Poor old Blue. Not only do the pop hunks have to contend with the daily grind of having Lee Ryan among their number but now they're set to become the laughing stock of the movie world—thanks to Richard Curtis's new film Love Actually. One of the strands of the multi-plotlined rom-com sees aging rocker Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) going head to head with the lads for the Christmas No. 1 and he doesn't pull any punches, especially when guesting on Ant & Dec's TV show. First he sarcastically describes Duncan, Anthony, Lee and Simon as "great musicians" before drawing a speech bubble on a poster of the boys, ridiculing the size of their manhood's. You'll have to go see the
film, which
opens on November 21, to find out who grabs the coveted top spot
Richard Curtis,
Actually
As the publicity machine for Love, Actually cranks into action, director Richard Curtis appeared yesterday on the BBC to talk about the production. Asked how he managed to deal with so many egos on one film, Curtis agrees that, 'Every attractive person in the country we've tried to drag in front of the camera,' but admits that things were made easier by the fact that the huge cast of stars only appear together once. 'They were very rarely together. And then all we had to do was give them biscuits. On the whole they're in pairs, so mainly I just had to deal with two a day. Given the huge success of songs used in his previous hits, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, the BBC were keen to find out what music will feature in this movie. As Curtis himself explains, 'Music is a really important linking device to keep the emotion going as you cut from tale to tale and show what unites the characters rather than what divides them.... I'm very lucky in that movies are the second most interesting thing to me— I'm much more interested in pop music.' Of the film soundtrack itself he says; ''It's a very good soundtrack with some good old songs and some good new songs—there's a very good song by the Sugarbabes, it's called Too Lost in You—it's serious!' Admitting that there's a lot of pressure on him to succeed as a first-time feature film director, 'It would make some people very happy if the film was a failure!' Curtis dodged questions about future projects—and when asked whether his favourite star Hugh Grant might follow him back to a TV production, he laughed; 'he won't do telly—he's too grand! Although he has done degrading stuff on comic relief from time to time.' * * * * * Watch three interview
videos from
BBC Breakfast (Richard Curtis, Martine McCutcheon and Behind the
Scenes:
The Foley Artist) here
Why is Richard Curtis Britain's most successful screenwriter by a mile? Partly it's because audiences happily turn up to his romantic comedies with a fair idea of what to expect. Anyone familiar with his hits—Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral—could tick off a list of elements one might reasonably expect from a Curtis film. These include a funeral, a wedding, Hugh Grant in a leading role, a character swearing intemperately, endearingly bad pop music, social gaffes, grief and pain juxtaposed with comedy, London looking ravishing, a specific kind of Englishness, and an optimistic world view. All the above are to be found in Love Actually, enthusiastically received at its first public screening on Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival. For the first time, Curtis has directed a film as well as writing its screenplay, and his stamp is unmistakable; Love Actually feels like a greatest-hits compendium. This is not to detract from the consummate writing skill underpinning it. Love Actually is what used to be called a portmanteau film, with Curtis dexterously cutting back and forth between nine sets of loosely linked characters and storylines. Appropriately for a film that opens on November 21, all the action occurs in the weeks leading up to Christmas.... But that title summarises the film's theme: that love actually is all around. Curtis highlights people's essential goodness at crucial moments—weddings and funerals, of course, and also airports. In Curtis's world, Heathrow is ideal for observing people affectionately greeting each other, and for staging a dramatic dash to intercept a departing loved one. His world is also becoming gradually more inclusive: no Asian characters are seen, but three black Britons have (admittedly minor) speaking roles. The old pros in a strong cast acquit themselves splendidly. Nighy, looking hilariously wasted, almost steals the film, but Emma Thompson's beautifully nuanced performance is its emotional core. In the film's most affecting scene, she stands beside her marriage bed, tearfully breaks down, then pulls herself together; no words, just body language. Much rubbish has been written about her career being damaged by the hostile reception to her film Imagining Argentina; here is an eloquent response. Inevitably, some stories work better than others; Thompson's and Linney's are the simplest and most effective. Grant's much-vaunted turn as the PM never quite ignites, largely because his romance with McCutcheon (who seems flat and overawed in this starry company) never rings true. But the ever-watchable Grant has an amusing scene, boogeying around Number 10 unobserved (or so he thinks). He also gets the best speech—a stirring, patriotic moment when he lists Britain's virtues and berates an overbearing US president (Billy Bob Thornton) for bullying us. Cue cheers and applause in hundreds of Odeons. Still, Curtis is the real
star: a
master of the feelgood movie, a man not ashamed to be corny or
sentimental,
and happily asserting reasons to be cheerful. Love Actually re-affirms
his stature as a great populist entertainer. Move over Calendar Girls,
here comes the year's big British movie hit.
...Sunday night's "work-in-progress" screening of Love Actually, the directorial debut of British writer Richard Curtis. The name may not be familiar to everyone, but his scripts for Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary are the international gold standard in mainstream adult comedy. It was no surprise, then, that a mob scene descended on the historic Elgin Theatre on Yonge St., creating block-long lineups and bringing out Toronto's finest to keep the peace. It also encouraged Los Angeles's unfinest to push their industrial weight around in the protection of their corporate bosses, whose stretch limos took up an entire block off Yonge, engines idling in defiance of local environmental ordinance to keep their occupants chilled. Curtis introduced his film with the same elegant self-deprecation he brings to his work. He then brought on members from the production, including Colin Firth and Laura Linney, before taking a seat for the first public screening of a film that is expected to put healthy bonuses under Working Title/Universal Pictures's Christmas tree when it is released "in cinemas—on November 21, actually," to quote from a print press campaign already in full swing. The studios are flinging the PR money about because Curtis is the closest thing to a sure thing in the movies these days, and because he has assembled a British supergroup to act in a shamelessly manipulative and therefore appallingly appealing romantic comedy I like to call Four Weddings and a Funeral for Bridget Jones's Diary About a Boy in Notting Hill. Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Rowan Atkinson, Firth and Linney star in a frantic, multiplotted story about the universality of love that alternatingly clogs the veins, quickens the pulse, fills the eyes and hammers the funny bone. It is, in other words,
pure Curtis—boldly
stolen from his own work and that of Nick Hornby, and set during the
five
weeks before Christmas (note release date) among the smart set in
London,
with side trips to Portugal and Wisconsin. A final split-screen montage
of normal people hugging each other to the strains of Brian Wilson's
incomparable
God Only Knows sent a crowd that had been with Curtis since hello into
a frenzy. Love Actually will make a billion dollars this winter.
Richard Curtis,
screenwriter of Four
Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill, has made a triumphant
directing
debut at the Toronto Film Festival with Love Actually. Although billed
as a work in progress with some dubbing to be
Toronto is now the best testbed for new films and offers a discriminating, knowledgeable local audience that doesn't mind queuing round the block if the wait is worth it.... Will Mr Blair be invited
to the British
premiere on 21 November? "We'll ask him but he'll probably have other
things
on his plate," said producer Duncan Kenworthy. (read
full article)
A maze of love matches make up a movie that is set to be this year's smash hit. But the plot of romantic comedy Love Actually is not going to be the easiest to follow. Hugh Grant leads a cast that also includes Martine McCutcheon, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Keira Knightley. And what a tangled web they weave—not surprising, when the film comes from the same team that produced Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary and Four Weddings And A Funeral. Grant plays a young, single prime minister. His love interest comes in the somewhat unlikely form of his tea lady, played by former EastEnders and My Fair Lady star McCutcheon (love match one). The prime minister has a sister, Karen—played by Emma Thompson—and she is married to Alan Rickman's character Harry to provide love match two. Harry is relentlessly pursued by an office temptress played by German beauty Heike Makatsch, which makes love match three. Firth plays a writer jilted by his love who moves to the south of France to start anew, only to land in the arms of his Portuguese housekeeper, played by Lucia Moniz (love match four). Liam Neeson's love—not the romantic variety this time—is for his stepson, played by rising star Thomas Sangster, who in real life is Hugh Grant's cousin. Confused? We're only halfway there. In the film, even young Sangster has a crush on the prettiest girl in the school. Neeson, by the way, also has a crush on Claudia Schiffer. One love match—or mismatch in this case—involves Keira Knightley's character Juliet, who marries Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Their wedding proves that the power of love can be as wild as a tornado. If Love Actually—directed
by Richard
Curtis and out in November—sounds like Notting Hill, Four Weddings,
Sliding
Doors and Bridget Jones all rolled into one, that's because it probably
will be. But, if a formula works, why not stick with it?
The world premiere of
Richard Curtis’
romantic comedy Love Actually...will screen as special presentations at
the Toronto Film Festival....The festival runs from Sept 4-13.
TIFF program listing In his directing debut, Richard Curtis—well loved by many as the screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary—has crafted a work that takes the ideal of the ensemble film to superlative new heights. Love Actually sings the songs of eight romances that all culminate on a sparkling Christmas Eve in London. Interweaving the passions of friends and co-workers, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, aging rock stars and the leaders of nations, it is a love story of epic proportions.
Premiere Fall Gems Curtis, who wrote “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill,” steps into the director’s chair for this compendium of ten stories of love—romantic, platonic, sibling, unrequited, etc.—that interweave during Christmastime in London. “Some of the stories are sad and rather hopeless, some are rather sweet and tender and romantic, and others are complicated,“ says Firth, whose novelist character heads to France after catching his girlfriend in bed with his brother—only to fall for a Portuguese maid. Grant plays the very single new British Prime Minister who’s smitten by a staffer on his first day on the job, while his sister (Thompson) suspects her husband (Rickman) of having an affair and struggles to “get on with the fact of living together and bringing up children,” she says. Neeson plays a father who fantasizes about Claudia Schiffer; she appears as herself in a role once slated for Nicole Kidman, who was tied up shooting “Cold Mountain.” Inevitably, a wedding and a funeral are involved, plus several cameos, including Billy Bob Thornton as the U.S. President. PLAY IT AGAIN: In
the film, a fading rocker (Bill Nighy) attempts to revive his career by
releasing a version of “Love is All Around”—the hit song from “Four
Weddings.”
With an introduction by Richard Curtis, the book features delicious extra bits of material, such as the out-takes and a look behind the scenes, stories of the actors' first loves and their favorite love songs. A 192-page trade paperback, with full-color photographs throughout.
Hugh Grant Cheers Up (Empireonline 07/04/2003) ...Grant gave the [Vanity Fair] reporter some news nuggets about his role in Richard Curtis's directorial debut, Love, Actually. Grant, who plays the newly-elected British Prime Minister, 'not based on anyone, I hasten to add,' in one of a series of overlapping stories will deliver the film's keynote voice-over as he explains. 'The camera is on the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport, and people are coming through and greeting friends, relations, mothers—kissing, hugging, all the stuff you actually see in airports. 'And the voice-over is saying, "Everyone says the world is going down the tubes, and full of hatred and misery. But that's not the way I see it. You know, when the planes hit the Twin Towers, the last messages from those planes and buildings weren't ones of hatred and revenge; they were ones of love. So I think that blah, blah, blah, blah....Love, actually, is all around as they say in the song."' It sounds very
happy-clappy, but
Grant is keen to explain that he won't be his usual fluffy self in the
role, 'I said to Richard [Curtis], "I don't know that I really can go
back
to being that nice person"...But he kind of adjusted things and we put
a little more steel in the character.'
The movie marks Curtis’s
debut as
a director. “I thought, I’ve hit 45. If I don’t do it myself now, I’d
just
have a heart attack next time,” he says. Along the way he gained an
insight
into why he has become the Go-To-Guy when it comes to getting romance
on-screen.
“One of the stories in this movie has a little boy who’s in love, and
as
we were auditioning, I found out that most of the little boys we spoke
to couldn’t give a damn about girls,” Curtis says. “I’ve known who I
was
in love with every day since I was five. I can tell you the names of
the
girls in sequence.”
Love, Actually...wrapped
this
month....By all accounts, Curtis' directing debut has gone superbly.
The
multi-stranded story of Londoners in the run-up to Christmas came in
only
two days over schedule after a 13-week shoot, despite being rained off
due to an electric storm in France. Kenworthy is all the more relieved
as Curtis had to manage a hefty ensemble cast including Hugh Grant,
Rowan
Atkinson, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Martine McCutcheon
and
Bill Nighy.
Laura Linney is out and about in London filming next year’s Brit flick hit-in-waiting, Love Actually. But that’s not all. There’s even talk of a meaty cameo for the uncrowned queen of London celebdom—Madonna. Clever clogs screen writer Richard Curtis (Four Weddings, Notting Hill) is directing the series of 10 love stories, in a variety of locations from Kenya to France to Chiswick, in west London. And Linney...teams up once again with man-mountain Irish actor Liam Neeson in the movie. The pair first worked together on Broadway, where Linney cut her thesp teeth before switching to big screen and bigger moolah. A star-speckled Love Actually cast includes dithering Hugh Grant, inscrutable Colin Firth and, er, Martine McCutcheon....She in fact plays a tea lady to Grant’s British Prime Minister. Alan “the actor” Rickman
also takes
a major role, while there are noteworthy eye-candy cameos for
supermodel
Claudia Schiffer, Shannon “American Pie” Elizabeth and ubiquitous
teen-flick
floozy Denise Richards.
"I was at Shepperton Studios where a Heathrow Airport Arrivals set has been built. What was filmed were various characters coming out of arrivals and other characters waiting for them. Hugh Grant plays the prime minister and as he walks out Martine McCutcheon (TV's "Eastenders") runs to him, jumps on him and kisses him. Reporters and other people waiting at arrivals are shocked. In the film Hugh as the prime minister falls in love with the young tea lady played by McCutcheon. "Also filmed was numerous
other scenes
with various celebs: Liam Neeson and Claudia Schiffer are waiting at
arrivals,
Colin Firth arrives with a European woman, Shannon Elizabeth and Denise
Richards arrive as sisters and Alan Rickman arrives where Emma Thompson
and her children are waiting for him (Thompson plays his wife, and
Hugh's
sister). The scenes were supposed to be set in winter. Also filming
took
place at a school in Putney in London, where various characters watch a
school nativity". Superstar singer Madonna
is planning
to appear in a cameo in the new Hugh Grant film. The Material Girl will
be one of many celebrities to appear in Love Actually alongside Grant
and
his fellow Brit actress Martine McCutcheon. The romantic comedy is to
be
directed by Notting Hill filmmaker Richard Curtis and charts the
romance
between Grant's British Prime Minister and McCutcheon's tea lady. A
spokesperson
refused to identify Madonna, but confirmed, "There are cameo roles in
it.
I am not sure if I can disclose who they are at the moment."
His
next project,
however, is 'more of the same' but with knobs on; Richard Curtis's
directorial
debut, Love Actually, will be fairy-light and full of laughs, and
Bridget
Jones's true love couldn't be happier to be part of the magic London
circle
again. It's got great lines, a heart of gold, and Emma and Hugh and
Liam
Neeson, he enthuses, absolutely irresistible. He plays a man who comes
home to hear his girlfriend having sex with the bloke next door. 'Hurry
up,' she orders, 'old pencil- dick will be back soon.' This makes him
chuckle
in anticipation of a big challenge. Presumably, it will be impossible
to
brood magnetically, or in any other way, at such a moment. (full
article
)
Grant and Curtis reunited for a premier role (The Telegraph, Sept 5, 2002, by Hugh Davies) Heike Makatsch, the
German actress
who plays a character called Mia, said the film was "about love, mainly
in London, around Christmas". Makatsch was yesterday at the Venice Film
Festival promoting her latest production....She said of her next role:
"My story involves Alan Rickman. That's all I can say. But I am looking
forward to meeting him."
As Britain's only billion-dollar screenwriter, and a legendarily persuasive fellow to boot, Richard Curtis was never going to have trouble casting whomever he wanted in his directorial debut, "Love Actually"—even though the number of leading roles stretches well into double figures. And so it goes. The previously announced Hugh Grant (as the British Prime Minister) and Emma Thompson (playing his sister) have now been joined by former soap starlet Martine McCutcheon (as the tea girl Grant's PM falls for), Alan Rickman (as Thompson's husband), Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, and, in a key cameo, Rowan Atkinson. Alongside those established players, there's also Keira Knightley (from "Bend It Like Beckham"), Andrew Lincoln (most recently in the C4 series "Teachers"), Chris Marshall (ITV's "Dr. Zhivago") and stand-up Martin Freeman. Curtis, the comic Midas behind "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill," "Bean" and "Bridget Jones's Diary," has described the project as having 10 different, partially interrelated storylines, in the manner of his favorite filmmaker, Robert Altman. Pic is set in contemporary London, with a short diversion to France. It's being produced by
Duncan Kenworthy
for Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's Working Title Films, bankrolled by
Universal
Pictures. Principal photography starts Sept. 2, but the very first shot
of the movie actually went into the can last week. Curtis, Kenworthy
and
a cameraman flew out to Kenya July 24 to shoot the opening image—a
picture
on a wall of a group of Africans, who come to life and start speaking
Swahili
to each other. What significance this has within the movie, nobody is
divulging.
The Universal/StudioCanal-backed project, which will start shooting Sept. 2 in France and London, boasts 10 partially interrelated stories. Thompson will feature as Grant's sister, and Rickman will play her husband. Neeson has a story of his own involving his relationship with a young stepson. Atkinson has a two-scene cameo. The title, Love Actually, is short for "Love Actually Is All Around," a jokey reference to the Reg Presley-written theme song from 1994's Four Weddings And A Funeral. Also cast are Colin Firth
("Bridget
Jones's Diary"), Bill Nighy ("Still Crazy"), Keira Knightley ("Bend It
Like Beckham"), and Martin Freeman ("Ali G Indahouse").
Laura Linney and Liam Neeson have joined the cast for writer Richard Curtis' directorial debut, "Love Actually." Written by Curtis, "Love Actually" is set to begin shooting in and around London on Sept. 2. There is no final budget in place until casting is completed on the film, which details 10 intertwining love stories. Linney and Neeson join a cast that includes Hugh Grant and U.K. television star Martine McCutcheon. Casting for the other six main roles continues. According to the
producers, "Love
Actually" is "10 new romantic comedies in one" and is set in
contemporary
London in the two months before Christmas.
Actress wins role as Hugh
Grants's
leading lady. Things have been a bit quiet on the Martine McCutcheon
front
since her spell in the West End's My Fair Lady. And Heat can
exclusively
reveal that times are now so tough for the former soap star that she
has
been forced to become a cleaning lady. Oh. OK, it’s for a role. Lucky
Martine
has scooped a part opposite Hugh Grant in Richard Four Weddings and
a Funeral Curtis directorial debut. In the film, which is called Love
Actually, Hugh plays a bachelor Prime Minister who falls for the
woman
employed to keep his house spick and span and cook his meals— and
that's
Martine. Emma Thompson also stars, as the PM's sister. The film is an
ensemble
piece featuring more than 80 actors, with several overlapping
storylines
running at once. The good news for Martine is that this means her part
is just as big and important as Hugh and Emma's. Filming starts in
September
so Martine will probably be spending the rest of the summer practising
her Franch polishing and familiarising herself with phrases like, "Mind
my nice clean floor!" and "Fancy a cuppa, Mr. Prime minister, sir?"
Good
on yer gel."
Firth's next project is
Richard Curtis's
"Love Actually". Featuring a stellar cast including Grant, Emma
Thompson
and Liam Neeson, it is a series of interwoven pieces examining that
slippery
emotion called love. Firth plays a man who discovers his girlfriend has
been having an affair, and promptly flees to France, where he embarks
on
a relationship with a woman who doesn't speak English. "My piece
is about two people falling in love who don't share a language," he
explains.
No doubt according to Firth's own convoluted philosophy, they will
communicate
all the better for it."
DNA Films, the U.K. lottery-funded franchise, sealed a deal Wednesday with U.K.-based Working Title Films to produce writer Richard Curtis' directorial debut, "Love Actually." The film will be fully financed by Universal Pictures and France's Canal Plus through Working Title's production deal with the companies. The finished film will be distributed worldwide by Universal. Curtis, who penned "Notting Hill," also is writing "Love," set to shoot later this year. There is no budget in place until casting is completed. According to the producers, Hugh Grant is in discussions to play a bachelor British prime minister who falls in love on his first day in office with the woman who brings him his tea. Set in contemporary London in the two months before Christmas, it aims to weave together a series of romances in the run-up to the holidays. DNA Films—headed by
Duncan Kenworthy
("Notting Hill") and Andrew Macdonald ("28 Days Later")—will produce
the
film in association with Working Title, with Kenworthy and Working
Title
co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner taking producer credits. The
project
reunites Kenworthy and Curtis. Kenworthy produced "Four Weddings and a
Funeral" and "Notting Hill," both written by Curtis and both starring
Grant,
with Working Title taking executive producer roles on the titles.
Curtis
also penned "The Tall Guy," "Bean" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" for
Working
Title.
Working Title Films and National Lottery franchise DNA Films have teamed to produce leading UK writer Richard Curtis' directing debut, a romantic comedy in which Hugh Grant is to play the British prime minister. Grant is in talks to play a bachelor PM who falls in love on his first day in office with the girl who brings him his tea. Emma Thompson is also understood to be in talks to star in the film, which has the working title of Love Actually. The film interweaves ten separate stories about Londoners looking for love in the run-up to Christmas, climaxing on Christmas Eve. Shooting is scheduled for the autumn. "I know Richard will make an excellent front-seat director!" said producer and DNA Films co-chief Duncan Kenworthy. "And with 20 leading roles in the film, it will be exciting to work with a really wide range of talented British actors." Having first teamed with
Curtis on
Four Weddings And A Funeral, Kenworthy went on to produce Curtis'
Notting
Hill, also with Hugh Grant, outside DNA. The franchise takes an in
association
credit on Love Actually, but is not investing in the production.
Working
Title co-chiefs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are also producing, making
this
their sixth film with Curtis. Along with Notting Hill and Four
Weddings,
Working Title collaborated with Curtis on Bean, The Tall Guy and
Bridget
Jones's Diary. "We are excited about Richard channelling his comic
brilliance
into directing the same way he does into scripts," said Bevan. "Let's
hope
there's fun in store," added Curtis.
As if Tony Blair didn’t have enough problems, now he's got a new Hugh Grant film to worry about. Grant will take the part of the Prime Minister in a new comedy penned by—surprise!— Richard Curtis. According to Grant, who said shooting would begin this autumn, Curtis will also direct the still-unnamed project. Grant, who is in New York filming his next rom-com with Sandra Bullock, spilled the beans during a taping session for US TV series Inside the Actors’ Studio. 'To my horror,' he deadpanned, '[the script] was really good, which means I’ll have to do it.'
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