On 16th March 2024, Prime Video’s The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine premiers at SXSW. Despite its widespread release still being six weeks away, interest was piqued after the first trailer – particularly among One Direction fans. From the first look photos matching specific 1D photoshoots and moments from their concert film Where We Are to the songwriting team for the film being the same as the one who wrote smash hit ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the fictional group August Moon are based on the iconic British boyband. More specifically, romantic lead Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), is unquestionably a fictional take on Harry Styles, from his role in the band to the placement and design of his tattoos.
It seems strange to think that a film based on Harry Styles fanfiction is closing a major festival, and even stranger to think that an Oscar winner (Hathaway) is starring in it. Meanwhile, Netflix has just renewed its teen drama My Life With the Walter Boys, and its second sequel to Spanish romance Through My Window is also set to release this year – both based on stories which originated on fanfiction/self-publishing site Wattpad before getting noticed by publishers. The recent romance film Float, starring Robbie Amell and Andrea Bang, was adapted directly from Wattpad. Streaming services are seemingly filled with films based on self-published novels and stories that were adapted from fanfiction. A decade ago, this was unheard of – how did so much change in the space of the last ten years?
It’s safe to say that Fifty Shades of Grey was a crucial moment in this cultural shift. When the E.L. James’ novels became a worldwide phenomenon, it quickly came to light that the series started out as a Twilight fanfiction entitled ‘Master of the Universe’ published on FanFiction.net. While the inspiration for the series was lightly ridiculed, it did not hinder the series’ continued domination of the charts, which eventually led to film adaptations from Universal Pictures and Focus Features. While the films were generally received poorly by critics, they were a huge success with the general public and were major Valentine’s releases between 2015 and 2018. More importantly, they were responsible for helping to launch the careers of Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, who have sustained the momentum of their success garnered from that franchise.
Around a similar time, the popular YA fantasy series The Mortal Instruments was also rumoured to have been adapted from fanfiction, this time Harry Potter-based, given that the author Cassandra Clare, had previously written stories for the fandom. She denied these rumours in a post on her Tumblr, in which she said, “In a post-Fifty-Shades world, there is no harm in saying ‘my books are rewritten fanfiction’ if they are, but [The Mortal Instruments] are not.” but internet sleuths have pointed out the similarities. The series received a film adaptation starring Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell-Bower and Rob Sheehan, as well as later being adapted as a Netflix series.
Both franchises serve well as starting points for up-and-coming actors, and this again proved true for Jacob Elordi, who began his career in The Kissing Booth, another high-school romance film that was adapted from a Wattpad novel (not quite a fanfiction), written by a 15-year-old Beth Reekles. While the star was criticised for recently bad-mouthing the franchise as “ridiculous” and “not universal”, there is no denying that roles like Euphoria and Saltburn were unlikely to have found Elordi if it wasn’t for the popularity of his breakout.
In 2019, the first mainstream film to emerge from the One Direction fanbase was the After series, based on the novels by Anna Todd, with another lead character based (albeit much more loosely) on Styles, played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin. That franchise amassed a worldwide box office taking of just under $169 million across five films. A quick peek at the Rotten Tomatoes scores for the films reveals they’re not considered masterpieces, and yet, they kept being made and watched. Without them, the upcoming The Idea of You may not have been made – or at least may not have secured the calibre of stars that are leading it.
On their website, Wattpad Studios reads, “Wattpad has completely transformed how the world discovers, creates, and engages with stories.” The past decade of romantic film releases, particularly on streaming services, proves that this is a valid claim. But while it may feel like a recent phenomenon, perhaps we have been made susceptible to fanfiction films previously without even realising it. Modern interpretations of classics such as Clueless (Emma by Jane Austen), 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew), and She’s The Man (Twelfth Night), could be viewed as AU fanfictions: transporting established and well-loved narratives into an Alternate Universe, and seeing how their story operates in this new setting. The recent run-away success of Anyone But You, itself based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, demonstrates that this remains a successful formula with audiences.
On the small screen, television series such as Smallville and Merlin, or even The Carrie Diaries, showed us iconic characters before they became the version of them that’s usually depicted. Meanwhile, the more loose book-to-screen adaptations could be reinterpreted as ‘fix-it’ fanfictions, the screenwriters changing and removing elements of the source material as they see fit.
There’s plenty to be said for the impact that Wattpad and other fanfiction sites have had on the publishing industry, particularly when it comes to romance fiction, and in many ways, the problems it has created are being mirrored in the film industry – more movies with smaller budgets are being made, so lower quality is demanded from writers; the market has become oversaturated in the shift from cinemas to streaming services as the primary mode of film release; there has become such a focus on IP, that original stories get lost in the mix. However, it also mirrors the same benefits – new writers from a range of backgrounds can be discovered organically; it satisfies fans of the original stories and plays into nostalgia; and it brings entertainment to mainstream audiences without taking itself too seriously as a genre.
The release of The Idea of You is certainly a continuation of a trend that has been steadily building. However, between the explicit ways in which it draws reference to its inspirations, and the presence of Hathaway’s star power, it also feels like a levelling-up.
Published 16 Mar 2024
A femme-driven cumming-of-ager with ripe dialogue, nudie montages and a feisty lead in Dakota Johnson.
By Meg Walters
With more and more women taking an active role in film production, depictions of young women are changing. What can they tell us about the modern world?
By Matt Thrift
A collection of 60 unforgettable declarations of love from the movies to get you in the mood this Valentine’s Day.
Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.
