Genre: Romance/Comedy.
Studio:
Polygram Films.
Production Company:
Working Title Films/Nothing Hill Pictures.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.
Who's In It:
Hugh Grant; Julia Roberts.
Who's Making It:
Roger Mitchell (Director); Richard Curtis (Screenwriter); Duncan Kenworthy (Producer); Tim Bevan,
Richard Curtis, Eric Fellner (Executive Producers).
Premise: A movie star has an affair with an everyman type.
Release Date: Christmas 1998/Spring 1999.
Comments: The producers are hoping to forge their picture similar in feel to a sort of 'My Best Friend's-(4)-Wedding(s) and a Funeral' type of hit. Chances are better-than-good at the start of the project: Polygram is the studio that released such previous comedy hits as the aforementioned 4 Weddings and a Funeral as well as the worldwide box office smash Bean -- as well as also being the previous creations of Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis.
Also of note is the mention that this is being talked about as a "sequel of sorts" to the immensely popular Four Weddings... film. Was the comment directed at Grant's character (is he playing the same fellow from 4WaaF again) or at the re-assembling of some of the same team that made the first show cast remains unknown.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by 'Deadpool'.]
April 3, 1998... The mother of CA reader Lisa Singleton, Mrs. Janet Singleton has landed the coveted role of 'woman with dog' in the film. Extras casting has begun. [Thank you to Lisa Singleton for being an outstanding agent for her Mum.]
April 12, 1998... We've been told that the movie hopes to begin production in London shortly. [The binoculars were offered to you by 'Deadpool'.]
April 20, 1998... Julia Roberts has landed in London to begin her work on the film. [Thanks again to Lisa Singleton for tailing Ms. Roberts in a London cab. Send the receipt to our expenses dep't.]
May 5, 1998... Some gossip we'd like to pass along to you. Apparently Julia Roberts is being paid $15,000,000. Also, some more meat to the film's storyline: Roberts is the "biggest film star in the world" and comes wandering into Hugh Grant's character's antique shop in Portobello Road one day. Naturally she falls in love with him. [Lisa Singleton -- the woman, the legend.]
June 19, 1998... Seems like that salary difference between the two leads caused something of a stir a while back... "Some discontent is going on among the stars on this project. Hugh Grant's unhappy with the fact that he's getting only $8 million for it whereas Julia Roberts is getting over $15 million. When he complained, the producers threatened to replace him with Ewan MacGregor (Trainspotting, Star Wars Episode 1)". [Thank 'Slappy' for dumpster diving at the production's offices.]
[With an additional acknowledgement to 'Cyspade' for sending us a secondary release date...]
October 27, 1998... We've received a advance review of the picture from a screening held in Baltimore last Saturday night: SPOILERS ALERT!
"Will (Hugh Grant) is a divorced book seller living in a part of London called Notting Hill. He lives with a bizarre, filthy exhibitionist named Spike (Rhys Ifans, from Twin Town) in a tiny little apartment. One day, Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), who's touted repeatedly by cast members as 'THE most famous actress in the world', walks into Will's bookshop. She leaves rather uneventfully, but when Will walks around the corner to get some orange juice, the two bump in to each other, and he spills said orange juice all over Anna. He takes her back to his apartment to clean her up, and they share a brief kiss. A few days later, she calls him, and the two start going out. All goes well until she takes him up to her hotel room, and her boyfriend (Alec Baldwin, in a tiny cameo) quickly hustles him out, mistaking him for a bell boy. Another week or so passes, with Will despondent, when she shows up at his apartment again. A scandal, over nude photos of Anna has broken, and she needs somewhere to hide. The two predictably have sex. The next morning, Will's roommate has called the press, and they're waiting on his front step. Anna flips out over this, and leaves Will. Another five months passes, and when Anna returns to London to film a project that Will recommended she take, he stops by the set to visit her. He overhears her describing him as 'nobody' to a crew member, and departs. She appears the next day at his book shop, and tries to convince him to take her back. He says no, but then decides he's made the wrong decision after she's left, and chases her down to a press conference, where he professes his love. The last shot of the film is the two laying on a park bench, with Anna having a slight curve to her stomach.
"Notting Hill is everything you'd expect from a mainstream romantic comedy. It owes a great deal to the Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck classic Roman Holiday. Hugh Grant is very talented, and very charming in his role. Julia Roberts is adequate, but I'd have rather seen Gwyneth Paltrow in the role. Rhys Ifans steals his scenes, and left me cracking up...my major gripe is that the film's pacing needs alot of tinkering with, and, currently running at about 2 hours, could benefit greatly from some trimming. A marginal recommendation.
"FYI: Hugh Grant was in attendance (he passed through the lobby of the theater as I did), as was Julia Roberts, who was already in Baltimore filming that movie (Runaway Bride, I believe?) with Richard Gere. I must say, turning around in my seat and seeing Julia Roberts behind me, looking right at me was a singularly wonderful experience. The film's screenwriter, Richard Curtis (who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bean) sat to my immediate right, who, bizarrely enough wouldn't shut up during the film."
[A wonderful review sent in by 'Fourrooms'.]
October 29, 1998... The NRG's test scores for the Notting Hill screenings have been revealed by this scooper -- and according to the scores, expectations will be high for this film.
"The score for Notting Hill film is the highest score ever recorded for a romantic comedy. Ever. There were two screenings, one in Baltimore on Sunday evening (so JR could see it) and the other in upstate NY on Monday. The highest test score for a romantic comedy before Notting Hill was 88 for the top two boxes and 78 for definite recommend. These are the scores for Notting Hill: Baltimore: 92 (top two boxes) and 82 definite recommend. Westchester NY: 94 top two boxes, and 84 definite recommend. No romantic comedy in history has ever scored this high."
If you're unaware, NRG is a company that 'scores' films for studios using a test audience. The higher the percentage score, the 'better' the film was enjoyed by the assembled audience. There's been a lot of criticism about the power the company has over a film's final cut, and the methods NRG uses to score films have been open to debate. Nevertheless, such a high score will undoubtably boost the confidence level of the films' creators and distributors -- it's being groomed to become a box office winner.
[Information was handed to us by 'Dr. Richard Kimble'. Yeah, no kidding it's a made-up name!]
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