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Last year the Gilmore Girls got the revival treatment, and it was recently announced that Will & Grace is being brought back to life for at least one season.
Now Love Actually, one of the most enduring rom-coms in recent decades (at least at Christmas time) is getting a sequel of sorts: director Richard Curtis is making a 10-minute follow up to the 2003 classic to see what the main characters are up to in 2017.
Curtis has had a pretty good hit rate in terms of getting the original cast back on board. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Andrew Lincoln, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Rowan Atkinson have all signed on for the project. Missing will be Emma Thompson, Martin Freeman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laura Linney, Rodrigo Santoro, and Alan Rickman, who passed away last year.
Curtis said in a statement that he had never planned on revisiting the film.
“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.”
The featurette will air during Red Nose Day TV event Comic Relief in March in the UK and May in the US (assumedly with an Australian air date somewhere in between).
The reaction to the news on social media has been divided, with a lot of excitement, some sadness that Rickman won’t be part of it, and obviously a lot of this GIF:
Image: Giphy
Another concern is how justice can be done for the film, and all of those characters with a 10-minute television spot. From the Prime Minister and Natalie to kids with crushes Sam and Joanna (and Liam Neeson and Claudia Schiffer!), there are a whole lot of loose ends to tie up. And more importantly, do we want to know what happens in the end? What if Liam Neeson and Claudia Schiffer had one awkward date and never saw each other again, and Liam now lives alone drinking heavily? Sure, the writers could create a happy ending for everyone … but then would that feel realistic?
Clearly this is intended to be a light-hearted look back at a popular movie. But seeing all the characters aged and holding iPhones – and of course Rickman’s obvious absence – might take something away from the original when we inevitably find ourselves sitting down to watch it next Christmas. I guess we have the same choice as when any remake comes out – to watch or not to watch? That is the question.
