Love Actually is one of those movies that tends to spur debate and division. Is it, as believed by our own James Dyer, a wonderful example of the romantic comedy genre? Or is it simply The Worst? Depending on how you feel about the movie, prepare to either have your heart gladdened or seethe with the fury of a supernova at news that some of the cast and writer/director Richard Curtis are gathering to shoot a short sequel for Red Nose Day.
Curtis, one of the founders of the UK charity, came up with the idea to explore what some of the characters might be up to now, 14 years after the original. The likes of Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy and Rowan Atkinson are all set to appear. Which, if we're honest mostly makes us miss Alan Rickman that little bit more.
“Over the years I’ve enjoyed doing Red Nose Day specials of TV things I’ve worked on — Blackadder, The Vicar Of Dibley and Mr Bean," says Curtis of the idea. "It seemed like a fun idea this year to do a special sketch based one of my films, since Red Nose Day is now in both the UK and America. I would never have dreamt of writing a sequel to Love Actually, but I thought it might be fun to do 10 minutes to see what everyone is now up to.
"Who has aged best? – I guess that’s the big question… or is it so obviously Liam? We’ve been delighted and grateful that so many of the cast are around and able to take part — and it’ll certainly be a nostalgic moment getting back together and recreating their characters 14 years later. We hope to make something that’ll be fun — very much in the spirit of the original film and of Red Nose Day — and which we hope will help bring lots of viewers and cash to the Red Nose Day shows."
No word yet on whether Ant or Dec will be involved, but the short will be part of the Red Nose Day show, to be broadcast on 24 March.