UNITED KINGDOM: HUGH GRANT'S LATEST FILM "THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN" PREMIERES IN LONDON, WHILE GIRLFRIEND LIZ HURLEY ARRIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA TO SHOOT A NEW MOVIE

Record ID: 385727

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: HUGH GRANT'S LATEST FILM "THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN" PREMIERES IN LONDON, WHILE GIRLFRIEND LIZ HURLEY ARRIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA TO SHOOT A NEW MOVIE
  • Date: 2nd August 1995
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 2, 1995)(RTV - ACCESS ALL) (NIGHT SCENES) EXTERIOR ROYAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY WITH LIGHTS SHOWING TITLE OF FILM PEOPLE AT POST-PREMIERE PARTY MONGER SAYING THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BAD PUBLICITY, HUGH GRANT ADMITTED HE HAD MADE A MISTAKE AND APOLOGISED AND IT HASN'T DONE HIM OR THE FILM ANY HARM (ENGLISH) FITZGERALD SAYING IT WAS
  • Embargoed: 17th August 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA2JAJKC1TDD19X7PQ0MHOFRFV0
  • Story Text: British actor Hugh Grant missed the London premiere of his new film Wednesday night (August 2) because he didn't want his appearance to generate "the wrong kind of publicity." The handsome 34-year-old film star who made international headlines when Los Angeles police caught him having sex in a car with a prostitute flew to New York before the British opening of "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain." Grant donated 10,000 pounds ($16,000) to the leukaemia charity to make up for his absence which an aide attributed to last-minute business arrangements. But the actor admitted there were other reasons.

    "If I had gone to the premiere, it might well have totally wrecked the proceedings for reasons you must guess. And that's the last thing I wanted to do because it has come out very well," he said in an interview with London's Guardian newspaper.

    Grant was arrested with Divine Brown just off Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard in June and charged with lewd conduct.

    Grant did not mention girlfriend Liz Hurley, who also missed the premiere. Instead, she arrived in South Africa on Wednesday to star in a locally shot film with American rap star Ice Cube.

    "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill And Came Down a Mountain" was was written by director Christopher Monger, who based it on a legend passed on to him by his father and grandfather.

    Two cartographers, played by Grant and Ian McNeice, arrive in the tiny Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw to measure the local mountain of the same name.

    But the English experts determine Ffynnon Garw in fact falls 15 feet (four metres) short of mountain status. To the consternation of the village, their mountain is reclassified as a hill, and will not appear on official maps.

    The eccentric bunch of locals call a village meeting to decide how to persuade the Englishmen to remeasure the mountain. They are led by irascible Reverend Jones (played by Kenneth Griffith) and Morgan the Goat (played by Colm Meaney).

    All seems lost until the village invites the seductive Betty of Cardiff (Tara Fitzgerald) along to waylay the Englishmen.

    Fitzgerald had earlier starred alongside Grant and supermodel Elle Macpherson in the Australian comedy "Sirens". Meany, who has appeared "The Road to Wellville" "Under Siege" and "Die Hard II", is currently a regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

    Monger wrote the movie's screenplay with Grant in mind. The actor was shown the draft in 1993 and immediately signed on for the film.

    It was shot on location in mid-Wales in the village of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant. Monger and his team transformed the look of the village back to 1917, and hired 150 locals as extras.

    To film the mountain scenes, they had to build a road up a local hill and transport the 25 cast, 80 crew and the extras to the top, along with horses and carts.

    Since opening in the U.S. 11 weeks ago, the film has grossed more than 10 million U.S. dollars.
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