The Idea of You director breaks down the Harry Styles of it all
There have long been rumours that the book on which the film is based started life as fan fiction.
There have long been rumours that the novel on which new Prime Video film The Idea of You is based started it's life as Harry Styles fan fiction.
The film stars Anne Hathaway as a single mother who falls in love with Nicholas Galitzine's Hayes Campbell, a British singer in the fictional One Direction-esque boyband August Moon, and some fans have argued that the likeness between Hayes and Styles can't be a coincidence.
However, author Robinne Lee has previously explained that Styles was just one of many inspirations for the character, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the film's release, director Michael Showalter revealed that the same was true when it came to shaping the movie version.
“I think that we obviously have... we all have a fascination with these pop stars," he said. "And so there's a sense, there's a lot of wish fulfilment. In this story, obviously, many people have pointed out there's a Harry Styles thing going on there, but it's not just Harry Styles, I think it's pop stars in general."
By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
He added: "There were, I think, elements of many pop stars, again, like these young pop stars, who are.... obviously, there's Harry Styles and One Direction, but also N'Sync and New Kids on the Block, and the Backstreet Boys and all of these popular boy bands over the years, who are kind of put together usually by someone else, it's almost like they're cast in a play or a movie.
More like this
"But then, as they mature, they start to become them their own selves, and they start to create their own identity.
"And so that was sort of in my mind, whether it's Taylor Swift, or Harry Styles, or Justin Timberlake, or all the different music artists that we've seen over the years, who kind of redefine themselves as they grow older.”
Meanwhile, producer Cathy Schulman said that one of the trickiest parts of the process was ensuring that Hayes's boyband August Moon were believable enough to not be directly compared to One Direction.
Read more:
- The Idea of You producer explains Nicholas Galitzine's boy band "boot camp"
- The Idea of You director on major book change: 'We wanted a hopeful ending'
"How do we capture the energy around One Direction without actually repeating it, or frankly, just being worse than it? That was the big fear," she explained.
"We knew we had to be original enough that we wouldn't be directly compared. And so, a lot of that pressure fell on, you know, Savan [Kotecha] to create songs that were more modern and more of the moment than One Direction's moment was, so that we didn't feel like it was a throwback, and that it could really be happening today."
The Idea of You comes to Prime Video on Thursday 2nd May.
Visit our Film hub for more new and features, or find something to watch with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
