Trivia for
About a Boy (2002) More at IMDbPro »

• Emma Thompson was offered a role.
  
  
• Brad Pitt turned down the lead role of Will Freeman on the grounds that it was implausible that someone so attractive would need to pretend to be a single father to meet women. He nevertheless appears in the film (sort of) - he is on the cover of an issue of "Esquire" magazine that Will is reading in his flat.
  
  
• At the beginning of the film Marcus says he would be able to take care of his mum (Toni Collette) if he were Haley Joel Osment. Toni Collette played Haley Joel Osment's mother in The Sixth Sense (1999).
  
  
• In Ali's room you can see a flag for the football (soccer) team Arsenal. Nick Hornby, author of the book on which the movie is based, is a die-hard Arsenal supporter.
  
  
• As Will describes web-based research as a "unit of time" in his day, he is seen typing the URL supermodelswithseethroughtops.com. This is actually an active Web site consisting of only a picture of the Pope, Pope John Paul II, in his "Pope-mobile".
  
  
• The quote "No man is an island" which Will jokingly attributes to Jon Bon Jovi, was actually written by John Donne in 1624, in his work "Meditation XVII".
  
  
• Hugh Grant's favourite film of his own.
  
  
• In the novel, the music that Will introduces Marcus to - and so in turn bonds with Ellie over - is not rap, but the band Nirvana. The book is actually set during the 1993-1994 period, and the story climaxes with the kids learning of and being affected by Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's 4/5/94 suicide (which within the context of the story has additional significance for Marcus). The title of the story is itself a pun on the Nirvana song, "About A Girl."
  
  

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