Get ready for Anne Hathaway to spark a steamy romance with Harry Styles. Well, not the actual Styles, more like the idea of him. Hathaway’s next starring role will be in a new movie with some very interesting source material: One Direction fan-fic. Yep, Anne Hathaway’s The Idea of You will bring an iconic piece of Harry Styles fan faction to life on the big screen.
Anne Hathaway was cast in The Idea of You as a Sophie, a mother who will unexpectedly fall for a Harry Styles-inspired heartthrob. The romance between the two features a taboo age difference of 20 years — it’s steep, but the plot makes up for it.
The Idea of You follows the story of a 40-year-old recent divorceé who takes her 15-year-old daughter to a Coachella-like music festival to see her favorite boy band live. Through a turn of events, Sophie falls into a whirlwind relationship with the lead singer that same band, Hayes Campbell (played by Red, White & Royal Blue star Nicholas Galatzine). Their relationship faces several obstacles that should tear them apart, but they find ways to persist against the odds as they figure out what they mean to one another.
Prime Video, where the movie will stream, provided a first glimpse at The Idea of You on Dec. 21 in a video showcasing its projects premiering in 2024. A couple of brief shots show Sophie and Hayes diving deep into their passionate romance, not caring what others will say.
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Diehard fans of the former boyband are no strangers to One Direction fan-fiction, but most of those stories live only on Wattpad. Robinne Lee’s debut novel The Idea of You hit bookshelves back in 2017 and proved that fan-fiction counts as real fiction, even if it’s about One Direction.
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The Idea of You isn’t the first One Direction fan-fic to get a movie adaptation. Anna Todd’s famous After series started on Wattpad but grew into a seven-book publishing deal. The series follows Tessa Young, a studious good girl that falls for Hardin Scott, a broody bad boy modeled after Harry Styles. After received enough fan love to make it to the silver screen five times, before ending with After Ever Happy in 2022.
After was also successful enough to catch the attention of some of the 1D boys; Liam Payne once admitted “I was getting into it. It was very raunchy… and then I got out [of] the cinema and realized that the film was based on characters that were all from One Direction, which is the funniest thing.”
Styles has also commented on the After series recently in an interview with Howard Stern; when asked of what he knows about the series, he awkwardly admitted he doesn’t know much about After and has never looked into it. That’s probably for the best.
There is no official date for when the movie will hit Prime Video, but the streamer did confirm it’s coming in 2024.
