Richard Curtis has spoken about how he once tried to make a sequel to Notting Hill but he ended up dropping it because Julia Roberts hated the idea.
The 1999 rom-com follows famous actress Anna Scott (Roberts), who falls in love with clumsy bookshop owner William Thacker (Hugh Grant) in Notting Hill. However, the paparazzi’s fascination with her complicates their relationship.
While promoting his new Netflix animated film, That Christmas, Curtis revealed that Roberts wasn’t a big fan of the sequel script, which saw her character Scott divorcing Thacker.
When asked if he would like to do any follow-ups to his past films, he told IndieWire: “I tried doing one with Notting Hill where they were going to get divorced, and Julia [Roberts] thought that was a very poor idea.”
Richard Curtis at the 15th Governors Awards held at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood on November 17, 2024 in Los Angeles CREDIT: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Earlier this month, Grant also criticised his character in the film describing him as “despicable”.
He said: “Whenever I’m flicking the channels at home after a few drinks and this comes up, I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’ There’s a scene in this film where she’s in my house and the paps come to the front door and ring the bell and I think I just let her go past me and open the door. That’s awful.”
He continued: “I’ve never had a girlfriend, or indeed now wife, who hasn’t said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you stop her? What’s wrong with you?’ And I don’t really have an answer to that – it’s how it was written. And I think he’s despicable, really.”
Despite that, the movie was a huge success, making more than $360million (£284.2million) at the box office and it became one of the highest-grossing British films of all time.
Along with Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, it won the Audience Award for Most Popular Film in 2000.
That Christmas is set to drop on Netflix on December 4.
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