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. A new Blu-ray release of the film is also now available, featuring four never-before-seen deleted scenes and additional archival special features featuring the cast and filmmakers.The publicist asked the Queen of Mean, who owned the building, for permission. This summer is the perfect time to revisit the romance, the humor and the fun of SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, now available on DVD and digital. A worldwide box office hit when released, earning more than $220 million, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards ® and three Golden Globes ®.* SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE also stars Rosie O’Donnell, Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner and Bill Pullman. the Volcano, You’ve Got Mail) in the captivating tale of a recently widowed man whose son calls a radio talk-show on Christmas Eve in an attempt to find his father a new wife. Written and directed by the iconic Nora Ephron ( When Harry Met Sally…, Julie & Julia), SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE stars the incomparable romantic duo of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan ( Joe Vs. Tonight’s lighting, designed to match the lighting scheme immortalized in the film, will shine brightly with a heart over Manhattan. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of its original release, the film continues to touch the hearts of fans everywhere. Beloved around the world as the iconic location where Meg Ryan’s and Tom Hanks’ characters fall in love, the Empire State Building plays a climactic role in the movie’s love story and reaffirms its status as the World’s Most Romantic Building.

Deleted scenes from sleepless in seatle