“We did a little bit of work with Jeff Arch,” said Foster.Īrch’s original had humor but was more “wistful,” said the screenwriter. He got Tri-Star interested Arch’s script was acquired with Ryan and her then-husband Dennis Quaid was attached. I sat on a little couch and I read this script and was crying at the end. I had at least one or two little babies and they were sleeping. But I remember with ‘Sleepless,’ it was a weekend afternoon. I’d get 25 pages in and if it was no good. “I was in my early thirties,” said Foster. “I made a declaration that I’m gonna write three movies in one year and ‘Sleepless’ was the second one.”Īrch was represented by a small agent who sent the script to Foster. He was working as a high school English teacher, as well as owning a tae kwon do school in a small Virginia town when the birth of his son in 1989 convinced him to try again. He had struggled for several years to sell scripts without any success. The soundtrack album, which featured the Harry Connick Jr.’s Oscar nominated “A Wink and a Smile” by Marc Shaiman and Ramsey McLean and such romantic standards as “As Time Goes By” and “Make Someone Happy” sung by Jimmy Durante, was also a major best-seller.Īnd “Sleepless” also introduced younger generations to the 1957 tearjerker “An Affair to Remember,” starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr as lovers who separate and agree to meet six months later at the Empire State Building, which is a favorite film of Annie’s, her friend Becky (Rosie O’Donnell) and Suzy.īefore the film was released, though, “Sleepless” went through several prospective directors and various performers attached to the project - from Ryan’s then-husband Dennis Quaid to Kim Basinger and Julia Roberts. Though there were big action movies in release such as “Jurassic Park” and “The Last Action Hero,” when “Sleepless” came out, the film more than held its own at the box office, earning $220 million worldwide. I think we just proved him wrong.’ And we did.”Įven 25 years later, Foster is still friend with Ryan, Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, who plays Sam’s good friend Suzy, as well as with Delia Ephron, the filmmaker’s youngster sister who worked on the final draft of the Oscar-nominated script and was associate producer and with Jeff Arch, who wrote the story and the original script. After she called Warner, the Navy suddenly said, “’Sure, you can come and use the hangar.’”Įphron, who died in 2012 at the age of 71, informed Foster near the end of production that director Mike Nichols once told her “’no good movies come from a pleasant experience. That was former Republican senator from Virginia John Warner, who had been married to Elizabeth Taylor and had been Secretary of the Navy. The Federal bureaucracy was, you know, slow or saying no. “There was an old Navy base that was being shut down and we wanted to use one of their big hangars as our sound stage. “There were no stages in Seattle,” note Foster. But they almost didn’t get space to use as their sound stage. The rest of the sequence where Annie and Sam finally meet on the observation deck at night on Valentine’s Day was shot in Seattle. “She said OK, but they can only have it for six hours,” said Foster.Īnd that’s how they got the helicopter shot, the lobby scene with Annie and Josh walking around the observation deck asking women if they were Annie. During the film, we will tally up the scores and reveal the winning team as the credits roll.The publicist asked the Queen of Mean, who owned the building, for permission. The Philadelphia Film Society presents Throwback Thursday Quizzo & Movie!ĭo you like trivia and nostalgia films? Then get your friends together to form an awesome Quizzo team (witty squad name required) and put your film and pop culture knowledge to the test at PFS’ monthly Quizzo & Movie!Įvery First Thursday of the month, come out to the Philadelphia Film Center for a screening of a crowd-pleasing modern classic preceded by a few rounds Quizzo where all questions are about or inspired by that night’s movie. “So warm and gentle I smiled the whole way through.” – Roger Ebert Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Rosie O’Donnell Hopscotching across seemingly every major metropolitan in the USA on the way to a happy ending, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE is as witty and knowing as it is unabashedly romantic, thanks to Nora Ephron’s typically ingenious script. With some prodding by her best friend Becky (Rosie O’Donnell), Annie writes to Sam, setting in motion a series of events culminating at the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Across the country, Baltimore reporter Annie (Meg Ryan) hears the broadcast and becomes infatuated with the widower in Seattle, despite the fact that she’s already engaged to nice but uninteresting Walter (Bill Pullman). After the death of his wife, Sam (Tom Hanks) re-enters the dating pool when his precocious son Jonah (Ross Malinger) calls into a radio show and begs the host to help his depressed dad.
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