Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough get their romantic groove on for Valentine’s Day in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation, Safe Haven, which opens February 14^th.  The romantic thriller centers on a young woman with a dark past whose sudden arrival in a small North Carolina town raises questions.  As Katie (Hough) struggles with a dark secret that still haunts her, she reluctantly finds new love with a lonely widower (Duhamel) and his two children (Noah Lomax, Mimi Kirkland).  Directed by Lasse Hallström from a screenplay by Dana Stevens, the film also features Cobie Smulders and David Lyons.

At the film’s recent press day, Duhamel, Hough, Hallström, Sparks and producer Marty Bowen talked about turning the novel into a major film, what Hallström brought to the story on screen, navigating the fine line between drama and melodrama to give an authentic voice to the characters, the process of conceiving a story that might be made into a film, the terrifying yet liberating experience of improv-ing on set, and the luxury of shooting on location in the quaint seaside town of Southport where the story was set.  Hough also discussed playing a victim of domestic abuse and doing her own stunts.  Hit the jump to read more:

Another day, another Nicholas Sparks feature film adaptation.  With The Lucky One’s release this past April and Safe Haven set to hit theaters in February, Warner Bros. is putting yet another Nicolas Sparks adaptation in the pipeline.  Deadline reports that Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day, The Emperor’s Club) is in talks to direct The Best of Me, with The Lucky One scribe Will Fetters being courted to rewrite the screenplay.  The story centers on two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks (aren’t they all?) who fell in love in high school but were torn apart shortly thereafter, setting them on two radically different paths.  They reconnect in their hometown twenty-five years later at a funeral, where they’re forced to drum up the past and confront painful memories.

Hoffman most recently directed the remake of Gambit with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, which hits theaters early next year.  Sparks will produce The Best of Me alongside Denise DiNovi.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the novel.

After a remarkable four weekends at number one, the reign of The Hunger Games is over.  But you probably saw that coming.  What seems a bit more surprising is the film that is taking its place at the top: Think Like A Man. Until a few days ago, the Sony/Screen Gems comedy looked like it would see a three-day opening in the mid-teens but, on Friday, it drew an estimated $12.2 million from 2,015 locations.  That should translate into a weekend close to $30 million for the Steve Harvey vehicle.  At number two on Friday, The Lucky One is also pulling in bigger-than-expected numbers, though it probably won’t challenge for first place, as was originally expected. The seventh feature from novelist Nicholas Sparks, The Lucky One earned an estimated $9.1 million from 3,155 locations for what should be $25 million by Sunday.  Finally, the latest doc from DisneyNature, Chimpanzee, opened in fourth on Friday with $3.5 million from 1,563 dates – a better start than either African Cats or Oceans… Full details and analysis tomorrow.

Best-selling author Nicholas Sparks and producer Denise Di Novi sat down with us for a roundtable interview to talk about The Lucky One, which marks the fourth Sparks’ novels that Di Novi has brought to the big screen.  In the film’s central role, Zac Efron stars as Logan, a U.S. Marine who returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive — a photograph he found of a woman he doesn’t even know.  He embarks on a journey of discovery and healing that leads to her and the realization that she could be much more than his good luck charm.

Sparks and Di Novi talked about their collaboration, what Zac Efron brought to the role, and the way they approached bringing the story to the big screen to ensure the character of Logan remained universal, original and interesting.  They also revealed how Efron invested a lot of passion, enthusiasm and hard work into transforming himself to make his character believable and to honor the experiences of young Marines who had served in Iraq.  Sparks also discussed the differences between a novel and a script and the principles he follows whenever he works on a film to make sure it maintains the spirit and the intent of the overall story.

A featurette for the drama The Lucky One has gone online. It’s a bit odd, considering a trailer has yet to be unveiled, but the featurette itself plays like an extended trailer complete with talking head narration. The film is an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name and stars Zac Efron as a Marine in the Iraq war who finds a photograph of a smiling woman buried in the sand in Iraq that brings him good luck. Once he returns stateside, he sets out to find the woman. Sparks and Efron appear in the featurette talking about the story and Sparks’ popularity among teenage girls readers nationwide.

As for the movie, it looks exactly like you’d expect. It’s sure become a staple of the “Favorite Movies” portion of Facebook pages for girls age 7-17, and that’s okay; these kinds of movies obviously have their audiences. Directed by Scott Hicks, the film also stars Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner. Hit the jump to watch the featurette. The Lucky One opens April 20th, 2012.

It appears that every single one of author Nicholas Sparks’ books will become a movie. Director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat) is currently in talks to helm Relativity’s adaptation of Sparks’ novel Safe Haven. Hallström has some experience with Sparks adaptations, having helmed last year’s Dear John starring Amanda Seyfried. Dana Stevens (City of Angels) wrote the screenplay for Safe Haven, and Deadline reports that Relativity hopes to have production underway this fall. The story centers on a mysterious young woman who shows up in a small North Carolina town. As she begins to fall in love, her dark past continues to haunt her. Hit the jump for a synopsis of Sparks’ book.

Taylor Schilling (Mercy) will play the female lead in Scott Hicks’ (No Reservations) adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, The Lucky One.  According to THR, the young actress beat out a group of her peers including Abbie Cornish and Katie Cassidy to land the highly coveted role of Zac Efron’s love interest.  The film revolves around Efron, who plays a Marine (naturally) that survives three tours of duty in Iraq and attributes this brand of luck to his carrying the photograph of a woman (Schilling) he has never met.  Of course, when he returns home from duty, he sets out on a seemingly impossible/irrevocably romantic journey to find the woman.

The Lucky One is the latest in a long line of Sparks adaptations which most recently includes: The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John, and The Last Song.  As such, we should have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the film’s narrative (at least it doesn’t star Miley Cyrus… yet).  The Lucky One is scheduled to begin filming in the fall with a 2012 release in mind.

As the author of A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Dear John, and The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks has been a reliable provider to the cinematic romantic dramas of the last decade.  As such, it’s completely understandable that Relativity Media fought hard to acquire the screen rights to his next work, Safe Haven, which sees release on September 14th.

Sparks shakes things up a bit with Haven.  There’s still an element of romance, and as always, North Carolina is Sparks’ go-to setting.  But Haven flirts with the thriller genre as young Katie “struggles with a dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her” just as she begins to fall in love.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

Depending on the type of career young heartthrob Zac Efron wants to have, The Lucky One is exactly the right choice, or… not.  Will Fetters’ script is based on a novel from Nicholas Sparks, who also provided the source material for A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Dear John, and The Last Song.  With a Sparks novel, you know what you’re going to get: young people in love, a North Carolina setting, and about $80 million domestic.

There is a bit of a twist on The Lucky One, in that the female “lead” may not even be a speaking part.  Efron would play a Marine who carries a photograph of an anonymous woman in his pocket during his three tours in Iraq as a good luck charm.  Upon returning to the Tar Heel State, Efron seeks out his picturesque dream girl.  If you want to hear a bit more about this project (meh), or a “high octane” script that Efron is eying (hmm), hit the jump.

At the age of 17, Miley Cyrus is a multi-platinum recording artist, the star of her own successful television series, a best-selling author, a clothing designer, philanthropist and now dramatic film actress.

In The Last Song, the latest book-turned-film from literary superstar Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook), for which the lead character was specifically written for Cyrus, the triple threat plays Veronica “Ronnie” Miller, a troubled teen sent to spend the summer with her estranged father (Greg Kinnear) in a small Southern beach town. As he tries to reconnect with her through the only thing they have in common, their musical inclination with the piano, she meets a boy (Liam Hemsworth) with whom she begins to let her emotional guard down. Much like Nicholas Sparks’ other work, The Last Song is a story of family, friendship and salvation, along with first love and second chances.

During a press conference held to promote the film, co-stars and real-life loves Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth spoke to the press about making this romantic drama together. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Opening tomorrow is director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) new film Dear John.  Here’s the synopsis:

Based on the best-selling Nicholas Sparks book, Dear John tells the story of  John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John¹s increasingly dangerous deployments.  While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas – correspondence that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

While I’m not usually a fan of the Nicholas Sparks genre…I’ll admit to enjoying Dear John a lot more than I expected to.  Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried have great chemistry and the romance and story feels believable.  If you’re girlfriend/wife asks you to see the film, bite the bullet.  Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of bad films in this genre and this is definitely not one of them.

To help promote the film, I recently got to speak with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.  Hit the jump to watch what they had to say:

International best-selling author Nicholas Sparks sat down with us recently to talk about Dear John, the latest film to be adapted from one of his novels. Directed by Oscar nominee Lasse Hallström, Dear John tells the story of John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. The film also stars Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins.

Sparks, who currently resides in North Carolina with his wife and five children, has published fifteen novels of which six have been turned into films. They include The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Last Song, Dear John, and Nights in Rodanthe. Sparks also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his novel, The Last Song. The film rights for his novel, The Lucky One, have been sold to Warner Bros. with Douglas McGrath attached to direct. Sparks has also sold screenplay adaptations of True Believer and At First Sight.

Nicholas Sparks talked to us about walking the fine line between drama and melodrama, how pleased he is with the way Lasse Hallström and the cast captured his vision on film, and what a love story like Dear John has in common with the Humphrey Bogart classic, Casablanca. Here’s what he had to say:

Opening on February 5 is director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) new film Dear John.  Here’s the synopsis:

Based on the best-selling Nicholas Sparks book, Dear John tells the story of  John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John¹s increasingly dangerous deployments.  While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas — correspondence that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

While I’m not usually a fan of the Nicholas Sparks genre…I’ll admit to enjoying Dear John a lot more than I expected to.  Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried have great chemistry and the romance and story feels believable.  If you’re girlfriend/wife asks you to see the film, bite the bullet.  Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of bad films in this genre and this is definitely not one of them.

To help promote the film, we’ve been given five movie clips.  Hit the jump to check them out:

January brings us the fourth season of HBO’s Big Love, but it may be the last to feature cast member Amanda Seyfried on a regular basis according to TV Guide. Seyfried plays the eldest of eight children of a polygamist family in suburban Utah, and will be written off the show in the eighth episode of the season.

The show’s creator, Will Scheffer, had this to say, “She’s been exploring her movie career for a couple of years now, and we’ve been giving her a lot of room to do that. I know having a commitment to a show for six months definitely cuts into her ability to pursue that career.” Just so there’s no confusion, Scheffer continues, “She’s moving away”. Hit the jump for what effect this may have on the show.

New posters for The Last Song starring Miley Cyrus and Warlords starring Jet Li have been released and you can check them out after the jump – along with the synopses.  Both posters are typical for the genre they’re in…the Miley Cyrus poster looks like any Nicholas Sparks movie, and the Jet Li movie sells the action.

Before hitting the jump, I should mention half the reason I wanted to do this poster article is to put Miley Cyrus with Jet Li.