Hugh Grant ‘Enormously Surprised’ To Hear Which Of His Films Quentin Tarantino Loves

Hugh Grant has revealed Quentin Tarantino surprised him when he revealed his favourite film from the British actor’s vast back catalogue.

In a new interview with Letterboxd, the Heretic star recalled a “weird experience” at an event in London, in which a “sweaty person pushed his way through the crowd to me”, only to reveal himself as the Pulp Fiction filmmaker.

“To my enormous surprise, he said, ‘Oh, man, I love Music And Lyrics’,” Hugh continued.

“He said he watched it on a plane, and was so disappointed that the plane landed before the film ended, that he had to quickly go and order it from Blockbuster or something. And I thought, ‘Surely not, not Quentin Tarantino’…?”

Music And Lyrics featured Hugh as a former 80s music icon, who leans on an unlikely source when he’s tasked with writing a new song for a modern-day pop star.

Elsewhere in his Letterboxd interview, Hugh opened up about shooting those musical scenes, admitting: “[The dancing in Music And Lyrics] was hell, because it was freeform, just kind of ‘express yourself’, ‘enjoy the music’, ‘feel it’ like a real rock star, and I’m so not that person, and I really struggled with that.

“I had to have my charming makeup lady in New York bring me little swigs of whisky in a 7Up bottle and a certain amount of lorazepam to really get in the mood for that one.”

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I Just Learned Why Horror Movies Make So Much Money And I Had No Clue

I’m not someone who enjoys, or even knows how to enjoy, horror.

So to think that some titles can creep close to a billion dollars in box office sales is pretty wild to me ― but they can, and do.

In a recent episode of insider showbiz podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, co-host Marina Hyde said it’s Hollywood’s “most successful genre bar none,” adding that a third of the 50 most profitable (not highest-grossing, but best return on investment) movies in Hollywood history are horror.

Even I can accept that some people like the spooky scenes I so loathe ― but why is horror such a money-maker when people love action, comedy, and romance too?

Part of it has to do with production costs

Marina mentioned The Blair Witch Project, which mainly used “found footage” (video shot from one of the actors’ camcorders), and Paranormal Activity, which made use of CCTV clips.

Blumhouse, a big-name horror production company, are “ruthless” with their budget and don’t want to really go over $20 million, the journalist said.

“Horror is thriving, really thriving,” Marina added, suggesting that fans of the genre will drop a bit more dosh than, say, a rom-com lover.

“Audiences go to cinemas for horror… Horror fans want to see stuff in theatres, she said, later adding: “People want to be scared together.”

Then, there are the casts to consider ― you’re simply less likely to see a high-budget A-lister in a horror, meaning you can save on actors’ salaries.

Blumhouse movies “don’t have big stars,” for instance, Marina’s co-host Richard Osman said. “You don’t need to be spending $25 million on actors.”

After all, what truly makes a movie scary ― mystery, suspense, scary noises, and dim screens ― aren’t exactly budget-busters.

Anything else?

The American Film Market crunched the numbers on horror movies and said that while “on average, documentaries stay in theatres for almost 5 weeks… horror movies are gone in half that time.”

They add that “What this means in practice is that horror films are much more reliant on their opening weekend to make money than other genres, and therefore much more reliant on good marketing, and a measure of luck.”

Still, they say, horror seems to be the most profitable ― bad news for me personally, but great news for studio execs.

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Richard E Grant Speaks Out About ‘Appalling’ Treatment Of His Daughter On Set

Actor Richard E. Grant has spoken out about the team members in a film studio that he feels don’t get the appreciation that they deserve.

The Withnail and I star was asked which job on a film set is the most under-appreciated and without taking a breath, he responded: “The runners.”

He went on to say that they are paid the least, are often the youngest and arrive at the studio at 5am and are still the last to leave at the end of the day.

He then added: “If anything goes, wrong, they get shit on from a dizzy height.

“I know because my daughter was a runner for two years, and was appallingly treated by some well-known household names in England.”

He revealed that these actors “changed their tune” when they found out who his daughter’s father was, adding that this made it worse for him, saying: “It made me damn those people even more.”

Finally, Richard admitted that he did actually confront one of the actors for their treatment of his daughter.

While he didn’t drop any names, it doesn’t appear that he’ll be forgiving them any time soon.

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Nightmare Before Christmas’ Director Has Settled The Debate Of Whether It Is A Halloween Film

If you’re from a certain generation, you’ve likely spent the final months of the year in an ongoing debate about whether the 1993 flick The Nightmare Before Christmas counts as a Halloween or Christmas film.

No, you can’t say both.

Unlike most silly debates, there are two healthy points of view here — the film is exploring the themes of Christmas and what it means to families and communties.

However, crucially… It’s set in a place called Halloween Town which is inhabited by traditionally scary creatures that count down to Halloween every year.

However, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas weighed in on this debate and I’m sorry to all the Christmas fans but you might be disappointed…

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If you’ve ever found yourself embroiled in this debate, we have exactly the bit of trivia you need.

When the director was asked whether he considers it to be a Christmas or Halloween film at a 2015 Q&A at Colorado’s Telluride Horror Show film festival, he said: “Oh, boy, it’s a Halloween movie.”

So that’s that. We can debate over other things this festive season, like whether Love Actually is good, actually.

While we’re on the topic of The Nightmare Before Christmas…

It was Henry Sellick that directed the film and not Tim Burton, as many people believe. Tim wrote the story but the direction was all down to Henry, who also directed Coraline.

Speaking about this common misconception in 2022, Henry said: ”[It] was a little unfair because it wasn’t called Tim Burton’s [The Nightmare Before Christmas] until three weeks before the film came out.

“And I would have been fine with that, if that’s what I signed up for. But Tim was in LA making two features while I directed that film.”

Let’s consider the record straight: it’s a Halloween film, directed by Henry Sellick.

Happy Halloween!

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