About a Boy
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Short description
About a Boy centres on Will Freeman, a wealthy London bachelor approaching forty who has never held a job or taken on any real responsibility. He lives comfortably off royalties from a Christmas song his father wrote and drifts through casual relationships, deliberately choosing single mothers because he believes they are easier to leave. To meet them, he invents a young son and attends a support group for lone parents. There he crosses paths with Marcus, an awkward twelve-year-old whose hippie mother, Fiona, is struggling, and the two form an unlikely friendship in which Will tries to make the boy cool while Marcus pushes him towards adulthood.
Chris Weitz directed the film, his second feature after Down to Earth, working from a screenplay he wrote with his brother Paul and novelist Nick Hornby; the brothers had previously made their names with American Pie. Paul Weitz counts it as the third of thirteen films he has directed, between Down to Earth and In Good Company. Hugh Grant leads as Will, with Nicholas Hoult as Marcus, Toni Collette as Fiona and Rachel Weisz as Rachel, among a credited cast of forty-one.
Produced by Working Title with Universal, StudioCanal and Robert De Niro's Tribeca, the film cost about 27 million dollars and returned roughly 129 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1 from 200,000 votes; on TMDB it holds 6.7 from 2,471 votes, a lower figure drawn from a much smaller group.
What's left behind the scenes
- The shot of Will’s reflection in the mirror while he’s depressed was filmed during a break in filming by Hugh Grant, who played the role. Directors Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz noticed how gloomy Grant looked when he wasn’t in front of the camera and continued filming without informing the actor.
- While Will describes searching the internet as one of his constant pastimes, he types in the following web address: http://www.supermodelswithseethroughtops.com/. This is a real website consisting of only one photograph of Pope John Paul II in his "Popemobile".
- When Will and Marcus sing on stage, an apple is thrown at Will. In reality, it was a ball painted to look like an apple, purchased from a nearby sporting goods store.
- In Ali's room, you can notice the flag of the English football team "Arsenal". Nick Hornby, the author of the novel on which the film is based, is a die-hard "Arsenal" fan.
- The role in the film was offered to Emma Thompson.
- Brad Pitt turned down the lead role intended for Will Freeman, explaining that it would simply be unbelievable if someone as attractive as him had to pretend to be a single father to date women.
- Brad Pitt turned down the lead role of Will Freeman, stating that it would be simply unbelievable if someone as attractive as him had to pretend to be a single father in order to meet women. Nevertheless, we can see him in the film (in a way) – on the cover of Esquire magazine, which Will is reading at home.
- In Nick Hornby’s 1998 novel, which served as the literary source for the screenplay, it is Hugh Grant’s character who introduces the character played by Nicholas Holt to the music of Nirvana (and this subsequently leads Holt’s character to connect with Ally, played by Natalia Tena). The novel is set in 1993-1994, and the plot reaches its climax when the characters learn about Kurt Cobain’s suicide. The novel’s title is a reference to Nirvana’s song “About A Girl” (1989).
- The film is based on the novel by Nick Hornby “About a Boy” (1998).
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