Relativity Media Acquires Sparks' Safe Haven

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http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=68590

Source: Variety
August 5, 2010


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Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media has acquired feature rights to Nicholas Sparks' upcoming novel "Safe Haven," reports Variety. The company has set up the project with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment, who will produce along with Kavanaugh and Sparks. Relativity's Tucker Tooley will executve produce.

The book, to be released on September 14 by Grand Central Publishing, is described as follows:

When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her... a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards... and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.


Sparks' novels have been turned into numerous films, including Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook, The Last Song, and upcoming The Lucky One.
 
Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough are playing the lead roles. David Lyons (The Cape) is playing Hough's estranged ex-husband, while Cobie Smulders is playing a neighbor.

I'm only bumping this since next week, my family and I will be going down to Southport. They won't start shooting there until the day after we leave, but hopefully I'll see or meet some of the cast members there.
 
This went from Keira Knightley to Hough? lol.
 
This went from Keira Knightley to Hough? lol.

I would've definitely see the movie if Knightley was in it. But I've heard the plot is lifted from Sleeping With the Enemy with the usual Sparks melodrama...

... I hope I can meet Cobie at least. She was awesome in The Avengers.
 
First stills:

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Trying to escape her past, Katie is "extremely guarded and definitely nervous about opening up to anyone in the town," says Hough. "Meanwhile, there is somebody after her, and you don't know why. She's got a dark secret."

The role is a big change for Hough, who moves away from singing and dancing after films like Footloose and this summer's '80s camp-fest Rock of Ages.

Directed by Lasse Hallström (Dear John, The Cider House Rules), Safe Haven, out Feb. 8, 2013 "was really just being as real as possible and not being campy and over the top," says Hough. "That is the biggest difference for me, I got to kind of sink my feet into the ground a little bit more."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2012/10/17/safe-haven-first-look/1638269/
 
Apparently, Relativity moved it back a few days to Valentine's Day. Their old spot was better IMO.
 
This guy must get laid pretty often.
 
Saw it today. Typical Sparks fare -- the OMG character death, sudsy dialogue, a character-building sequence in the rain -- but with a few twists. Julianne Hough isn't a good actress, but she's not offensive. She's just... there. Had Keira Knightley stayed on for the movie, she would've given Katie a helluva lot more depth.

But I think Knightley's higher acting range would've made everyone else (save Cobie Smulders) look even worse. Especially David Lyons... his acting veers between menacing psychopath and cartoon villainy to entertaining effect. There was one scene that had me howling with laughter.

I'm giving it a pass, if just for the fact that Lasse Hallstrom and his DP photograph Southport and give it more character than the actual actors do, and it's not that bad of a movie (provided you know what to expect from a Sparks movie). And it was fun sitting there and spotting the locations I visited appearing in the film.
 
What's the deal with Nicholas Sparks anyway? Does he have a vagina or something? Because there's no way a dude (gay or straight) can keep cranking out sappy tragic romance novel after sappy tragic romance novel that will inevitably turn into a movie starring flavor of the month actors and actresses. It's defying science. :o
 
What's the deal with Nicholas Sparks anyway? Does he have a vagina or something? Because there's no way a dude (gay or straight) can keep cranking out sappy tragic romance novel after sappy tragic romance novel that will inevitably turn into a movie starring flavor of the month actors and actresses. It's defying science. :o

Seems to me it's probably the opposite. He's worked out a great way to woe the ladies and is probably screwing himself stupid.
 
If you can make money writing the same thing over and over again who cares.
 
I read the synopsis for this on wikipedia. Sounds hilariously hokey, I can't even believe this is a thing. :funny:
 
It's not terrible. If you have a lady, I highly suggest you bring her to it for obvious reasons.
 
Seems to me it's probably the opposite. He's worked out a great way to woe the ladies and is probably screwing himself stupid.

Yeah... he's married with two kids. I'd wish he'd expand his palette wider instead of churning out sudsy romance one after the other... would be nice to get a suspense or sci-fi movie set in the Southeast.
 
Women love this stuff. Even the most hardcore, cynical woman digs a bit of sappy romance on occasion.
 
Women love this stuff. Even the most hardcore, cynical woman digs a bit of sappy romance on occasion.

I know. It's a little less formulaic than Dear John, Nights in Rodanthe, and The Notebook. A little bit of procedural drama and Sleeping with the Enemy thrown in, which makes it more palatable.

And you pay attention to the trailers and the actual movie, you can guess how Cobie Smulders' character figures into the movie. It's a cheap plot twist, but Smulders really sells that scene.
 

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