This was bound to happen eventually. With every studio and their mother adapting “a Nicholas Sparks’ novel” (Screen Gems just gave us Dear John and Disney’s got the Miley Cyrus-led The Last Song next month), why not option another one for super-weepy director Scott Hicks. The other talented weepy director, Lasse Hallstrom, made his bones with Dear John, so now it’s Hicks turn, who has been on a weepy role lately after his single father fable The Boys Are Back.
The filmmaker is in talks to direct The Lucky One:
“…this novel, which has been adapted by Remember Me‘s Will Fetters, tells the story of a Marine who survives three tours in Iraq and attributes his good luck to a photo he carries of a woman he’s never met. Once released from the service and home in North Carolina (it’s always North Carolina in Sparks novels), he sets off in search of her.” [Total Film]
There’s been no cast or start date announced yet.
Few writers have made more money off the Iraq War than Mr. Sparks. In John it was the letters that kept our hero going – here it’s a photo. Maybe next time it’ll be a .mov file on the man’s iPhone.
That said, Nick Cassavetes proved “a Nicholas Sparks novel” can make for a well-made romance (The Notebook), but that was a high point for the Sparks sub-genre. If there was anyone to get back there, it’s Hicks.
What do you think of this next Sparks adaptation?