FILM 2073: SLIDING DOORS (1998)

TRIVIA: John Hannah is partly responsible for the film getting made after the funding collapsed. He coincidentally happened to be in a meeting with Hollywood hotshot Sydney Pollack and casually mentioned this great screenplay he was hoping to make. Pollack was sufficiently interested to read the script and immediately sorted out the funding.

In a 1998 interview, John Hannah claimed that playing James Hammerton "was the hardest thing I've ever done. Like in life, it's much easier to be depressed than to be happy. Being happy and smiling naturally on take 18 is really tough. Give me bawling my eyes out any time."

The sliding doors incident that sparks the parallel story was shot at Fulham Broadway station and at Waterloo Station on the Waterloo and City line of London Underground. The blue train is a Waterloo and City line train.

Minnie Driver was originally offered the leading role ahead of Gwyneth Paltrow.

Sydney Pollack spent a lot of time in the editing room. "I got very involved in the editing because it was a picture that required precise editing to know where you were all the time and for the audience to be able to find the movement between the A and B stories," Pollack explained. "I felt that Peter needed some help, so I worked pretty hard on that part of it and was able to make a contribution to it just because it was complicated for a director the first time around."

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Peter Howitt: The diner with the long hair and Liverpudlian accent who orders from Helen on her first evening as a waitress.

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