Harry Styles hive, rise up! Anne Hathaway has just been cast as the lead in the film adaptation of a popular fan-fiction book inspired by the former One Direction member, The Idea of You.
Based on Robinne Lee's smash hit debut novel of the same name (originally published in 2017), the Prime Video movie will be directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Dropout), who will also produce alongside Hathaway, Cathy Schulman, Gabrielle Union, Kian Gass, Eric Hayes, Jordana Mollick, and the book's author. Jennifer Westfeldt will executive produce and write the script.
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Hathaway stars as Sophie, a 40-year-old divorced mother whose husband left her for a younger woman. After he cancels a trip with their 15-year-old daughter to Coachella, Sophie steps in to save the weekend, braving the crowds and desert heat. But soon, she meets 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (loosely based on Styles) — the lead singer of the hottest boy band on the planet, August Moon (again, loosely based on One Direction) — and her weekend trip turns into a whirlwind, life-changing romance.
"This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles," Lee previously told Vogue. "It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole."
After a 20-plus year career in front of the camera as an actress — with roles in films including Fifty Shades of Grey sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed (which are fan fiction themselves, inspired by Twilight) — Lee noticed herself getting fewer auditions as she aged. "You're no longer the hot one. You're not the girlfriend. You're not even the hot wife now. You're the mom," she said. "It really broke my spirit, and I was angry about it, and so a lot of that went into this book."
Production on The Idea of You begins in October, and a release date has not yet been set.
