After all the terrible news 2016 brought with it, we needed a small wonder to bring the positivity back. That light at the end of the tunnel just might be the upcoming 10 minute sequel reuniting the original cast of Love Actually.
Red Nose Day Actually
This short sequel will be featured as a part of the UK’s biennial telethon, under the name Red Nose Day Actually. This event will raise money for the charity Comic Relief, which was founded in 1985 by Richard Curtis and British comedian Lenny Henry. This charity helps fund anti-poverty programs around the world, so the sentiment behind the sequel is a good one.
In the UK it will be aired on March 24 and on CBS a few months later. Red Nose Day is a biennial event that supports the British charity Comic Relief.
The famous movie’s maker, Richard Curtis said of the project “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. We hope to make something that’ll be fun – very much in the spirit of the original film and of Red Nose Day. It’ll certainly be a nostalgic moment getting back together.”
We won’t get to see what happens to Karen and Harry
Many of the fans of the original movie will be heartbroken to hear this, but, the upcoming mini-sequel will not give tribute to Alan Rickman, or include Emma Thompson.
One of the most heartbreaking storylines of the 2003 Love Actually – the one between Harry (Rickman) and Karen (Thompson) – will not be featured in the sequel. So we will never get to know what happened to them.
In case you need to freshen up your memory – in Love Actually, Rickman’s character Harry attracted the attention of his young secretary, which he fell in love with, and his wife found out after realizing that a necklace he bought, was not a gift for her.
Karen (Thompson’s character), a devoted mother of his children, received a Joni Mitchell CD, and while their marriage was left stranded, we were left wondering „what happens next?“.
Sadly, the mini-sequel will not help us find out.
But here are the stories we will get to see
These are the actors from the original cast who signed up for the sequel:
Hugh Grant (The Prime Minister)
Martine McCutcheon (Natalie)
Keira Knightley (Juliet)
Liam Neeson (Daniel)
Colin Firth (Jamie)
Andrew Lincoln (Mark)
Bill Nighy (Billy Mack)
Olivia Olson (Joanna Anderson)
Lucia Moniz (Aurelia)
Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Sam)
Marcus Brigstocke (Mikey)
Rowan Atkinson (Rufus)
When the movie first came out, the critics were not thrilled by it. The manner in which we followed several separate but still intertwined love stories got us all involved and made this movie into a holiday favorite. So, when the news came out that there will be a sequel, everyone got curious – who will be featured? Shall we get to see what happened with each and every one of those stories?
The first thing we noticed when we saw this list, was the fact that Emma Thompson is missing
While he was speaking for The Press Association „Love Actually“ filmmaker Richard Curtis stated that it would be too „complicated“ to include a tribute to Alan. „”You know dealing with Alan is very complicated so not really. We’re not doing everyone. We’re doing about two-thirds of people.”
From earlier statements, we know Curtis considered a tribute to Alan, and thought about getting Emma Thompson on board, and now we finally know the result. “Ems (Emma) isn’t in it,” Richard confirmed. “She just can’t do it.” Many rushed to criticize Curtis, but Thompson decided to speak out, stating that she won’t be participating in the upcoming short sequel, because it is „too soon“, and revisiting her role would be „too sad.“
“[Director] Richard [Curtis] wrote to me and said, ‘Darling I can’t write anything for you because of Alan’ and I said, ‘No, of course.“
And we can definitely understand why. Maybe it is best that we give Alan a silent tribute. Trying to cram a tribute to Rickman, his incredible talent, and energy, and also an explanation for his absence into a 10 minute sketch would have been confusing, would not have done justice to him, and might have drawn attention away from the Red Nose Day which is already dedicated to a sombre theme.