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Rickman plays Spurrier in new wine film

(L-R) Alan Rickman, Rachael Taylor, Bradley Whitford, Freddy Rodriguez and Bill Pullman arrive for the premiere of "Bottle Shock" at the Cinema 2 Theater in New York on August 4, 2008. (UPI Photo/Laura Cavanaugh)
(L-R) Alan Rickman, Rachael Taylor, Bradley Whitford, Freddy Rodriguez and Bill Pullman arrive for the premiere of "Bottle Shock" at the Cinema 2 Theater in New York on August 4, 2008. (UPI Photo/Laura Cavanaugh) | License Photo

NEW YORK, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- British actor Alan Rickman says he has been in touch with the man upon whom his character in the new wine-themed movie "Bottle Shock" is based.

The movie was inspired by the real story of how Steven Spurrier, a British wine-seller in France, helped open up the grape business by encouraging California vintners to enter their wines in a 1976 blind tasting. Rickman plays Spurrier in the movie.

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"I had met him, but neither of us was particularly aware of it about five years ago and I have spoken to him subsequently," Rickman told reporters in New York recently. "When I knew I was going to do it, I kind of tracked him down and said, 'What do you think about this?' He was a little horrified, but he let us use his name because I was never going to impersonate him, that was never the point. It's not an accurate portrait of him -- just his place in the story and, I suppose, his energy for want of a better word -- of being an Englishman in the middle of the Napa Valley 30 years ago, which was like landing on the moon, really."

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Rickman, who has starred in "Sense and Sensibility," "Galaxy Quest" and "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," admitted "Bottle Shock" was an irresistible project for him.

"Smartly written, great characters, a beautiful place to go and film it, great friends to work with," Rickman told UPI. "Why say no?"

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