Through thick and thin

MANILA, Philippines - From Marc Lawrence, director of Music and Lyrics and Two Weeks Notice, comes Columbia Pictures’ new delightfully funny love story Did You Hear About the Morgans? starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker.

The riotous comedy follows a highly-successful Manhattan couple, Paul and Meryl Morgan (Hugh and Sarah Jessica), whose almost-perfect lives have only one notable failure — their dissolving marriage. But the turmoil of their romantic lives is nothing compared to what they are about to experience: They witness a murder and become targets of a contract killer. The Feds, protecting their witnesses, whisk away the Morgans from their beloved New York to a tiny town in Wyoming, and a relationship that was on the rocks threatens to end completely in the Rockies… unless, in their new BlackBerry-free lives, the Morgans can slow down the pace and rekindle the passion.

Marc is no stranger to writing and directing romantic comedies. But it was while shooting those films that he was developing ideas for Did You Hear About The Morgans?, a story that would push his boundaries within the genre by covering new ground: Marriage.

“The idea first popped up 10 or 11 years ago,” says Mark. “It was a project I’d start and then put away, and I’d keep coming back to it. They say ‘Write what you know,’ and for me, the problem with that is I don’t know anything. I never leave my apartment. The only thing I know about is marriage — I met my wife in college and I’ve been married a long, long time.”

But the Morgans’ is not just any marriage. “It’s a marriage in trouble,” notes Lawrence. “These two people have lost their connection specifically because of an infidelity, but the root of the problem is that they had grown apart.”

Hugh sets the scene: “Paul is trying desperately to get Meryl back. And he takes her out for dinner, and on the way back from dinner they witness a murder. They become very important witnesses. The killer has seen them, so the FBI sends them into the witness protection scheme.”

Mark uses this fish-out-of-water scenario of the witness protection program as an exciting new way to force the couple to face their issues in the wilds of Ray, Wyoming. “This high-maintenance New York couple,” explains Hugh, “are sent into the Witness Protection scheme in a tiny cowboy town in Wyoming, and that has interesting effects on their marriage.”

Sarah Jessica notes this premise for a romantic comedy stood out from her previous projects. “I liked its whimsy. I haven’t played somebody like Meryl. I haven’t played somebody in a marriage like hers.”

On top of trying to save their marriage, roughing it without modern conveniences isn’t the worst of Paul and Meryl’s problems. Hot on their trail is the hitman, Vincent, played by Michael Kelly, sent to finish the job and get rid of all witnesses.

Opening on Feb. 3, Did You Hear About the Morgans? is distributed by Columbia Pictures.