HOLLYWOOD - Just imagine, "Notting Hill " could have been called "Cheek."
At least that's what one Nick Villiers says as the screenwriter sues Universal Pictures, producer Eric Fellner and several others for $15 million, alleging that the 1999 Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant romantic comedy was ripped off from his screenplay, which was titled "Cheek," Daily Variety reports.
The story goes as follows, according to the suit filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court: Villiers says that he gave Fellner, producer of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill," his "Cheek" manuscript back in 1998 and was asked to rework it over a period of nine years. Nothing materialized out of his project until the scribe discovered that Fellner had allegedly stolen his idea when "Notting Hill" was released in 1999.
"Notting Hill" has gone on to gross more than $400 million globally.
Villiers is suing for breach of a confidential relationship, fraud and misappropriation. Also named as defendants are Richard Curtis, the writer on "Notting Hill," and producer Duncan Kenworthy.