HUGH GRANT - GRANT ABANDONS CURTIS PROJECT

GRANT ABANDONS CURTIS PROJECT

HUGH GRANT has pulled out of his latest movie with long-time collaborator RICHARD CURTIS after a reported dispute over the script, which was developed by Curtis' younger brother.
Grant had signed on to play the lead role in new romantic comedy Lost For Words but abandoned the project last week (begs06Oct08), after production had already begun, because he wanted the screenplay changed, according to British reports.
The star's withdrawal has allegedly infuriated executive producer Curtis, who wrote the British star's previous hit films Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually, and whose younger brother Jamie had worked on the script.
A source tells Britain's Sunday Telegraph, "Grant wanted changes made to the script. A compromise could not be agreed."
A spokesperson for the movie's production company, Working Title, confirms Grant's departure, adding: "The film will go on. We are now in talks about who will replace him as the leading actor."
Grant, 48, had been cast in the movie as a womanising English actor who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a Chinese actress, played by Ziyi Zhang, and her translator.