If we had a pound for every time a piece of Harry Styles fanfiction was adapted for the big screen, well, we'd have £2. Which still seems like a lot, considering.
Following in the footsteps of the After franchise, which was famously adapted from a Wattpad series about Styles, Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine will star in The Idea of You, an Amazon adaptation of a book by the same name by Robinne Lee. With Anyone but You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, ushering in a new era of romcom glory, could we see the torch passed with this film that's basically everyone's intrusive thought at a concert: What if the lead singer sees me in the crowd and falls in love with me?
This isn't the first time Galitzine has dipped his toe into the fanfic-to-film pool. He recently starred in Red White & Royal Blue, another adaptation by Amazon, of a book based on self-published fanfiction. The Idea of You already has a huge online fanbase, much like Red White & Royal Blue, and since its release in 2017, it's solidified its status as a sleeper hit, even wracking up heaps of fan-made merch about its lead fictional boyband that's definitely not based on One Direction.
Here's everything we know about The Idea of You.
What is The Idea of You about?
Oh boy, strap in, because this one is a doozy.
The film, which differs slightly from the book, centres around Solène, a 40-year-old single mother who owns an art gallery and whose husband left her for a younger woman. Yeah, Anne Hathaway is playing a mum to teenagers now. After taking her daughter to Coachella, she ends up meeting Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of a boyband called August Moon. They begin a clandestine affair but life gets in the way and they have to navigate the reality of their different lives and the pressures on their relationship.
Yes, August Moon is a One Direction proxy and Hayes Campbell is a stand-in for Harry Styles - indiscriminate tattoos on Nicholas Galitzine's arms and all. Eagle-eyed Directioners have already been picking apart the first-look pictures of the fictional group, pinpointing exact similarities in costumes and stage gestures with 1D. Never underestimate the power of a brain pickled by boyband fandom!
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And while the actual story may sound eerily similar to Styles' relationship with Olivia Wilde, that's just a strange moment of kismet, as the book came out three years before they struck up their Don't Worry Darling dalliance. The book is about Styles, though, Lee has confirmed. It's also a little bit inspired by Prince Harry. She just loves British Harrys, ok?
Who is starring in The Idea of You?
Before you ask, no, Harry Styles isn't in this film, although that would be a fun moment of meta-commentary.
Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine are heading up this romcom, while elsewhere there's Veep's Reid Scott and Masters of the Air's Ella Rubin. The film is the cherry on top of the kind of year that warrants it-boy status for Galitzine, after starring in Amazon Prime's Red White & Royal Blue, another book adaptation thought to be loosely based on fanfiction about Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield and the online standom that emerged about their pairing post-The Social Network. He also starred in the Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edeberi-starring comedy Bottoms.
The film is directed by Michael Showalter, who's known for helming movies like The Big Sick and The Eyes of Tammy Faye. He also co-wrote it alongside Jennifer Westfeldt.
Is there a trailer for The Idea of You?
Moonheads (that's what we're calling August Moon fans now), get excited, because finally, the first trailer for The Idea of You has landed. In it, we see Hathaway's Solène and Galitzine's Hayes meet in a backstage trailer at Coachella before striking up a whirlwind romance complete with private jets, sneaky pap pics and side-of-stage shout-outs. You can watch it here.
When will The Idea of You be released?
The Idea of You will premiere at the SXSW festival in March before landing on our small screens on Amazon Prime on 2 May.