Anyone else obsessed with the idea of a film based on Harry Styles?
Well, our girl Anne Hathaway is having a moment right now, and not just because she brought Devil Wears Prada vibes back into our lives. The male romantic lead in her new movie – The Idea Of You – is rumoured to be based on Styles himself.
The trailer has just dropped (breaking records and becoming the most popular streaming movie trailer ever) and the release date is just a few months away. Plus, the movie has just premiered at SXSW Festival, and critics and fans alike are loving it, with initial takes calling it the “movie of the decade” and asking if it's ultimately saved the romcom genre.
Anne Hathaway has also spoken out about why she took the role – as some online critics have shown surprise that she would, after winning Oscars and performing much in much “higher-brow” films. Turns out, she just wants to have fun and doesn’t want to be “pigeonholed”.
In an interview at SXSW, she said: "I don't want to be pigeonholed and don't want to be placed in a box of what type of films I have to be making because of my age, gender and because I won an Oscar. I want to have fun, dammit. It speaks to me."
Here's everything we know.
What is The Idea of You plot?
The novel – written by Robinne Lee, who is also a co-producer on the film with Hathaway – follows the story of a 40-year-old mom and divorcée Solène, who starts a love affair with a British pop star name Hayes Campbell, who leads boy band, August Moon.
Sound familiar yet?
Who is in The Idea of You cast?
Anne Hathaway will play Sophie, of course, while 28-year-old British actor Nicholas Galitzine (most recently seen in Mary & George alongside Julianne Moore, Bottoms and Red, White & Royal Blue) will play Hayes Campbell.
According to IMDB, Graham Norton will make an appearance in the film, with other members of the supporting cast including Ella Rubin, Annie Mumolo, Perry Mattfeld and Mathilda Gianopoulos.
Is there a trailer for The Idea of You?
Yes, and fans are going mad over it. A track from Hayes' band August Moon has already been released on Spotify – named Dance Before We Walk.
Amazingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, it was written by the same team that wrote One Direction's hit song What Makes You Beautiful. Coincidence? We think not.
Anne is looking chic as ever as protagonist Solène, and we are very intrigued by the chemistry between the two leads. They meet at Coachella (where Soléne has taken her daughter, who is a mega fan of Hayes' band) and a love affair, however misguided or crazy, unfolds from there.
And is The Idea of You really based on Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde's relationship?
The novel was published back in 2017, while Styles and Wilde started dating in January 2020 – Wilde divorced her husband Jason Sudeikis the same year – so the stories don't run completely parallel.
“This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles,” she told Vogue in an interview. “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.”
She concedes that she considered both Harry Styles and Prince Harry as inspirations, but Lee also had a relationship with a younger man herself, so it's perhaps more accurate to say the novel, and film, are made up of a mix of influences.
But whether or not The Idea Of You is about Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde, it's set to bring some important issues to the forefront. Lee describes wanting to express the feeling of “restlessness” women feel, “exploring how women of a certain age cease to be seen.”
“You want to just live the way you've lived when you were in college, or your early twenties, when you freedom and you never have to think of anyone but yourself,” she explains.
“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."
Nicholas Galitzine added in an interview with Buzzfeed UK that it was all about a balance between inspiration and creating a “new and original” character. “We tried to create a character that felt, you know, a kin to Harry in a sense that he’s a younger man dating older women," he said. "It was important to create someone who felt new and original and not a shoddy impersonation of this person.”
Consider us intrigued and hooked.
Is there an The Idea of You release date?
It will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video from 2 May. Not long!
The original article can be found on Glamour UK
