Four Weddings and a Funeral sequel set for Red Nose Day
Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas and Rowan Atkinson are among the stars confirmed to take part in a short Four Weddings and a Funeral sequel, to be screened in the UK on Red Nose Day 2019.
The film, which will be directed by the original’s Mike Newell, and scripted by original screenwriter Richard Curtis, takes place 25 years after the events of the original and features yet more nuptials.
Says Curtis: “We’re all definitely older – I suspect no wiser. It’s been really enjoyable working out what’s happened to all the characters – and now they get back together for the fifth wedding. Where, as usual, not everything will go as planned.”
Four Weddings and a Funeral was released in 1994 and is the film that catapulted Curtis and its star, Hugh Grant, to international fame. It was also a landmark release for UK distributors Working Title.
Grant played Charles, a bumbling London bachelor living with his sister, Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman), and attending the weddings of many peers while carrying a torch for mysterious, weather-resistant American Carrie (MacDowell).
Scott Thomas played Fiona, a waspish friend secretly in love with Charles, while Atkinson was a bumbling vicar, and John Hannah and Simon Callow played a gay couple, the latter of whom was the recipient of the funeral. Hannah will also return, alongside Anna Chancellor (as “Duckface”, to whom Charles gets engaged), James Fleet and David Haig.
Coleman died in 2001 at the age of 33; while Corin Redgrave, who played Carrie’s husband, Hamish, died aged 70 in 2010.
The original film ended with Charles leaving Duckface at the altar, reuniting with Carrie and the pair vowing in the pouring rain never to marry. The final scene also contains MacDowell’s much-mocked line of dialogue: “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed.”
The final credits of Four Weddings reveal the romantic fates of some of the characters, including weddings for Scarlett and Duckface, Fiona being linked to Prince Charles and Carrie and Charles having a baby boy.
Made on a budget of £3m, Four Weddings and a Funeral took £193m at the box office and Oscar nominations for best picture and best original screenplay. It won Baftas for best film, actor, director and supporting actress (for Scott Thomas), as well as a Golden Globe for Grant.
The film was named the 23rd best British film of the 20th century in a 1999 poll commissioned by the British Film Institute. A spin-off TV show, written by and starring Mindy Kaling and set in London, is due to premiere on Hulu.
Curtis is the co-founder of Red Nose Day, and two years ago wrote and directed another short film reuniting the stars of Love Actually, his wildly successful Christmas comedy from 2003.
The Four Weddings sequel will air in the UK on BBC1 on 15 March 2019 and in the US on NBC in May.