Is “Notting Hill 2” coming?
Bad News by author Richard Curtis
Those were the days: Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in “Notting Hill”.
© imago images/Mary Evans
There have already been short sequels to other popular RomComs starring Hugh Grant. Why not “Notting Hill” too?
Along with “Love Actually” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill” is one of the most popular romantic comedies in film history. What they all do besides main actors Hugh Grant (63) unites: Richard Curtis (66) wrote the script. As a guest on the podcast “Have You Seen?” He first revealed great news for all “Notting Hill” fans, only to immediately lose hope again.
Curtis revealed, according to The Telegraph, that he “recently wrote ‘Notting Hill 2’.” It was supposed to be a ten-minute special for the charity Comic Relief, which organizes Red Nose Day every year. The plot was supposed to take place “in a divorce lawyer’s office. Hugh and Julia have separated, but then they realize that they still love each other.”
To see Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts (55) together again as the shy William Thacker and the world-famous Anna Scott – even for just ten minutes, that would have been a dream for all romantics. But Curtis himself was apparently not satisfied with the result. According to “The Telegraph”, he said that his script for the “Notting Hill 2” special was simply “not good enough” and that the project therefore did not come about.
Why he thinks it’s generally difficult to produce a sequel to a popular romantic comedy: “I think it’s a tricky thing to make a second version of a romantic film. Because you start with people who are together, then they separate them from each other and then bring them back together again.”
Curtis also casually revealed that Grant had apparently refused to collaborate with him on another project for Comic Relief – because once again he would have had to play “Mister RomCom”: “Hugh is 90 percent charity, with everyone “He’s trying to make the world a better place with every fiber of his being. After much thought, he told me a fairly large amount of money that he would give to Comic Relief so he wouldn’t have to shoot it. So it never happened!”
It worked for the other two films
On the other two cult films, however, a renewed collaboration was achieved a few years ago. As part of the British “Red Nose Day” in 2019, director Mike Newell (81) brought the original cast of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” in front of the lens for his short film called “One Red Nose Day And A Wedding”. In addition to Grant and Andie MacDowell (65), Kristin Scott Thomas (63), John Hannah (61) and Rowan Atkinson (68) were also there again.
Two years earlier, the many stars of “Actually… Love” performed the honors in “Red Nose Day Actually”. Including Liam Neeson (71), Andrew Lincoln (50), Keira Knightley (38), Colin Firth (63), Bill Nighy (73) – and of course Hugh Grant.