About Time? After three Baftas and an Oscar nomination, Richard Curtis, maker of Four Weddings and A Funeral, announces his final romcom

Richard Curtis initially made his name co-writing television comedies (Getty Images)

After three Bafta wins, countless other awards and an Oscar nomination for best screenplay for Four Weddings and a Funeral, the film-maker Richard Curtis has announced that his latest rom-com is to be his directorial swansong.

Curtis said that About Time, which will premiere on 8 August, will be probably be the last film he will make. In an interview with Empire magazine he said: "I waited a while in order to write [About Time]. This probably will be the last film I will direct."

When was asked for a reason, he replied: "I don't know. Just a feeling… just a feeling. It feels like a summing-up to me. We'll see how things turn out." Curtis is perhaps most widely known for writing the script for the hit films Four Weddings, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary, as well as for directing Love, Actually and The Boat That Rocked. At various times, a screenwriter, music producer and actor, he became a household name after co-writing the television comedies Blackadder, Mr Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. He also co-founded Comic Relief and is a Bafta fellow.

Curtis, 56, who was interviewed on the Cornish set of his latest film, admitted it had taken him years to feel he was "wise or experienced enough to dare to direct" a movie. He said: "Many of the comedies I like the most, from Woody Allen's films to Monty Python films, have been directed by the people who write them. So it was quite a logical thing, but I wasn't ready to do it at that point. And when I reached that point, I was ready to do it."

About Time, which is on general release from 4 September and stars Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson, explores the world of 21-year-old who discovers he can travel through time and change events.