CANADA: HUGH GRANT AND ELIZABETH HURLEY TEAM UP FOR THE THRILLER 'EXTREME MEASURES'

Record ID: 545117

  • Title: CANADA: HUGH GRANT AND ELIZABETH HURLEY TEAM UP FOR THE THRILLER 'EXTREME MEASURES'
  • Date: 14th September 1996
  • Summary: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA (SEPTEMBER 14, 1996) (REUTERS) "EXTREME MEASURES" PRODUCER ELIZABETH HURLEY SAYING THE BIGGEST SURPRISE WAS I DIDN'T REALISE I'D BECOME SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THE PROJECT. IT STARTED OFF OK WE'VE GOT A FILM COMPANY WE'VE GOT TO FIND A FILM...I DIDN'T REALISE HOW OBSESSED I'D BECOME WITH IT. HOW I ENDED UP INTEFERRING AND BECOME SO VERY HANDS ON. NOT BECAUSE OF MY EGO BUT BECAUSE I COULDN'T LET IT GO (ENGLISH) HUGH GRANT SAYING SHE'S PASSIONATE ABOUT EVERYTHING, SHE'S THE MOST OPINIONATED WOMAN I KNOW, IN THE WORLD. SHE'S THE GIRL THAT IN NURSERY SCHOOL HAD HER MOUTH SCOTCH-tAPED TO SHUT HER UP (ENGLISH)
  • Embargoed: 29th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: Canada
  • Reuters ID: LVAB8YGIZJT8LXV6GIPXJAI21V5X
  • Story Text: Hugh Grant has teamed up with his real-life girlfriend, actress/model Elizabeth Hurley, for the new medical thriller "Extreme Measures." However, the pair aren't on-screen together. While Grant stars in the picture, Hurley takes her first stab at producing a major motion picture.
    Grant plays Dr. Guy Luthan, a doctor who works in one of New York City's busiest and most bloody trauma rooms.
    When a homeless man wearing a mysterious wristband from some other hospital dies from bizarre symptoms, Luthan gets suspicious and starts investigating.
    Things get even stranger when the body of the deceased disappears from the hospital's morgue and all his files are deleted from the hospital's computer system.
    Suspecting a cover-up of something diabolical, Luthan discovers a plot to use live human subjects for medical experiments in hopes of finding a cure for spinal injuries.
    Running this illegal research operation is one of the country's most revered medical figures, Dr. Lawrence Myrick, played by Gene Hackman.
    Also in the cast is Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Jodie Trammel, a nurse in Luthan's emergency room.
    This is the first film to come from the production compnay recently created by Grant and Hurley called "Simian Films". It's also the first film Hurley has ever produced.
    She says she was drawn to the script by the moral dilemma between human research and medical advancements but was surprised by how passionate she became about the story.
    "I didn't realise how obsessed I'd become with it," she said in Toronto where the film had its North American world premiere.
    Grant, however, wasn't surprised by her commitment.
    "She's passionate about everything," he said.
    "She's the most opinionated woman I know, in the world. She's the girl in nursery school who had her mouth scotch-taped to shut her up." Grant and Hurley made news last year when Grant was arrested in Hollywood after being caught in a car with a prostitute. Hurley publicly stood by her boyfriend following the incident and has since gone on to become a household name.
    She recently became a spokesmodel for the Estee Lauder cosmetics line.
    "Extreme Measures" was directed by Michael Apted, whose previous credits include "Coal Miner's Daughter" with Sissy Spacek, "Gorillas in the Mist" with Sigourney Weaver, and "Nell" with Jodie Foster.
    Before the film went into production, Apted insisted both cast and crew participate in research in real hospital emergency rooms.
    Grant spent several days with doctors at New York City's infamous Bellevue Hospital and studied them as they dealt with the stress of making difficult decisions with even more difficult patients.
    To ensure authenticity, the crew had one of Bellevue's top emergency room doctors on the set throughout the shooting of the medical scenes.
    That doctor later said those scenes looked more accurate than anything he had seen on film before.
    "Extreme Measures" had its North American world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 13.
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