The other Princess Diana movie that was never released

This year ‘Diana’, which starred Naomi Watts as the late Princess of Wales, got a right royal pasting from UK critics. Many called the movie distasteful, arriving just a few years after her tragic death.

But there was another film about Princess Diana that had worse timing. Much worse.

[Did Naomi Watts walk out of Diana interview?]

‘Diana & Me’ is an Aussie rom-com about a Princess Di fanatic (Toni Collette) who comes to London with the goal of meeting her idol. Just as she is about to do so, she’s pushed out of the way by a paparazzo (Dominic West) and misses her chance, spending the rest of the film trying to reconnect with the Princess.

You can watch the very grainy trailer above, which – believe us - was not easy to track down.

So what, right? Thing is, ten days before the film was supposed to be released in 1997, Diana was killed, speeding away from motorbike-riding paparazzi.

“The film had to be pulled off the release slate, obviously,” says director David Parker, who then spent the next couple of months tinkering with the structure, adding material in a desperate bid to make it palatable.

“We thought it could work, as a tribute more than anything,” he remembers. “But of course anything that was trying to make light of the paparazzi and Diana was not going to work in that climate.”

The intrusion of the tabloids was a subject which rang true with its stars too. "Funnily enough, a lot of tabloid s*** was being written about me in Australia while I was in London shooting ‘Diana and Me’,” Collette has said.

Since then, the movie has become a famous lost artefact. It was briefly released in Australia (though Parker doesn’t remember it happening), making just over £120,000 at the box office. IMDB lists it as coming out in Denmark in 1998 and Italy in 1999, with a UK TV premiere in December 1998.

“It just never showed up,” recollects actor Roger Barclay, who played a supporting role in the film. “Google didn’t exist, so your agent would phone you and tell you what was going on. I asked and it was always no news.”

“I read the script and it was a lovely little piece,” he adds. “I thought it would be accepted quite well. But it was surreal that the film was all about paparazzi chasing Diana. Quite prophetic. And just doomed.”

The producers did make some small efforts to get it seen.

“I remember taking the film to Los Angeles and showing it to this room of Hollywood heavies,” says Parker. “When the credits were rolling, they just all looked at each other and went ‘wow, we don’t think so.’”

It meant that Dominic West’s breakout role would have to wait until ‘The Wire’ a few years later.

[Watts worried about royal reaction to Diana film]

Parker – ironically a former snapper who’d once photographed and spoken to Diana on a Royal tour to Australia in the early Eighties – recalls trying to find his leading man in London.

“I wish I still had that audition tape,” he laughs. “Everyone came – Rupert Everett, Daniel Craig, the most amazing bunch of young actors. But Dominic came in and I really liked him.”

Roger Barclay agrees. “Dominic and John [Simm] played these paparazzi beautifully,” he says. “They captured the mood of that time.”The production team also managed to secure some high profile cameos. Kylie Minogue makes a cameo, as does Bob Geldof and, umm, Jason Donovan.

Interestingly, the film had had Diana’s tacit approval.

“We did try and contact her people to tell her we were making this thing and it was really showing Diana in a good light,” says Parker. “It was a piece of entertainment, it was meant to be a comedic. They were happy for us to do it, but they didn’t want to be involved in any way. They were supportive of us making the movie.”

As for the film’s legacy, it remains a film fan’s curio.

“Apart from when you emailed my agent, nobody’s ever asked me about it!” jokes Barclay, a former soldier who has since featured in ‘Johnny English Reborn’ and had a recurring gig on ‘Holby City’. “It was life imitating art.”

Toni Collette, Dominic West and John Simm have clearly been unaffected by the film’s disappearance.

Meanwhile Parker, a respected Australian cinematographer, writer and producer, has recently completed his first directing job since ‘Diana & Me’, a Melbourne-set comedy called ‘The Menkoff Method’ due out next year.

“I’m still quietly proud of the movie,” says Parker. “But I learned never to do a movie that depended on someone being alive. I’m quite wary of that.”Listen to Naomi Watts walk out of an interview with the BBC about the new ‘Diana’ film below.