Did You Hear About the Morgans?

STARRING Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Steenburgen
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Marc Lawrence

Ever since she starred with Hugh Grant in the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures, Sarah Jessica Parker hoped she’d reunite with the actor in lighter fare. ”I love Hugh Grant,” she says. ”I’ve seen every romantic comedy he’s made — I’ve auditioned and screen-tested for most of them. Anyone who works in romantic comedy would want to do a movie with him.”

So when Morgans came her way, Parker signed right up — even though she and Grant wouldn’t be meeting cute. The two play a rich New York City couple whose marriage is on the rocks. But after they witness a murder, they’re forced to live together in the Witness Protection Program in Wyoming. ”While there, they encounter a bunch of things they’re not used to seeing: horses and bears and bingo games,” says Marc Lawrence, who also directed Grant in Two Weeks Notice and Music and Lyrics. Playing a fish-out-of-water on location in New Mexico wasn’t a stretch for London native Grant. ”I was just utterly fascinated,” he says. ”When we were shooting a rodeo, the production company had to put up a sign at the gate saying ‘No concealed weapons.’ I never thought I’d be on a set like that.”