19 October 2023 , 12:38
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Comic Relief co-founder and iconic film writer Richard Curtis has revealed he has written the sequel to Notting Hill, which became a global hit in 1999.
The film tells the love story of a British bookseller, played by Hugh Grant and an American actress, played by Julia Roberts. But instead of the sequel going straight to the big screen, Richard, 66, has said Notting Hill 2 is going to be a 10 minute special for Comic Relief. Speaking on the TV reviews podcast Have You Seen?, with Mariella Frostrup and Peter Fincham, Richard said: "Recently I wrote… I was going to do it for Comic Relief…"
Richard Curtis says that he has written the sequel to Notting Hill
Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant starred in the hit romantic movieHe added: "I wrote Notting Hill 2, which was going to be a 10-minute special set in the divorce lawyer’s office with Hugh and Julia splitting up, and then they both realised they loved each other again." In the film, Anna Scott, played by Julia, happens to walk into William Thacker's book store in London's Notting Hill.
He then bumps into her again on the street, spilling his orange juice all over her top. Despite having worked together on Notting Hill and Four Weddings And A Funeral, which came out five years before the classic romantic comedy, Hugh turned down the chance to work with Richard again for a new project.
The film writer admitted Hugh was unwilling to work with him on a new script called Meet Cute – a play on words for TV and film term which refers to an amusing first encounter between two characters. The idea was about a man called John Cute. He continued to say: "John Cute. Meet John Cute. Again, it was a thing for Comic Relief, I had this idea that I was going to write a sequence of 10 min films and I talked to Hugh Grant about it.
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"Every episode was going to be a 'meet Cute' where he met somebody, and then by the end of the episode, they were going to have to split up, and then we’d have another 'meet Cute'. And Hugh, who is, a man who’s 90% charity, everything about him is aiming to make the world a better place… and eventually, after consideration, he quoted me quite a large amount of money that he was going to give to Comic Relief not to do it. So it never happened!"
Recently, Hugh Bonneville defended Notting Hill against those who criticised the film for its lack of multi-culturalism, saying a scene illustrating how diverse the area is was cut. The 59 year old actor who starred in the film as a stockbroker told The Independent: "There was a whole sequence about the multiculturalism of Notting Hill. But test audiences said, 'where's the star? where's Julia Roberts?' So the producers cut out that three-minute multicultural sequence."
Hugh said that films should not be cancelled because modern audiences do not appreciate them in the same way as an older audience. He added: "I think we all need to take a huge dose of perspective and allow art to be art. All forms of artistic expression should be allowed to breathe. I think respect should always be there – with expression comes responsibility. But I don't think it's right to say, 'I don't agree with you, therefore you should be cancelled."