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| Efron and Schilling in The Lucky One |
Warner Bros. brings Nicholas Sparks'
bestseller “The Lucky One” to the big screen starring Zac Efron (“Charlie St.
Cloud,” “New Year’s Eve”) and Taylor Schilling (upcoming “Argo”). The
passionate, romantic drama is directed by Academy Award®-nominated
writer/director Scott Hicks (“Shine,” “No Reservations”).
In
the film, U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Efron) 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. Learning her name is Beth
(Schilling) and where she lives, he shows up at her door, and ends up taking a
job at her family-run local kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and the
complications in her life, a romance develops between them, giving Logan hope
that Beth could be much more than his good luck charm.
“The
Lucky One” marks the fourth film Denise DiNovi has produced based on the
acclaimed, best-selling novels of Nicholas Sparks, including “Message in a
Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember” and “Nights in Rodanthe.” “I fell in love with
his writing when I first read `The Notebook,'” DiNovi recalls. “I was just
completely blown away by how beautifully romantic and imaginative it was. Every
one of his books is a completely original story, yet they all renew your faith
in the power of love to heal and to transform lives. They’re also always
grounded in reality. When you read the books or see the movies, you think,
‘That could happen to me,’ or ‘I wish that would happen to me.’ Everyone wants
to believe that love can conquer all, and that theme resonates so deeply in
`The Lucky One.'”
With
a screenplay by Will Fetters (“Remember Me”), DiNovi turned to the vision of
director Scott Hicks, who has made such expansive, emotionally resonant films
as “Shine,” “Hearts in Atlantis” and, most recently, “No Reservations,” to bring
the story to life. “In Scott’s work I have seen the ability to make human
emotion completely captivating, emotional and compelling,” she says. “He is
also such a beautiful director in terms of visuals. He has an amazing eye for
imagery, and this story has such a diverse visual scope—from the scenes in Iraq
to the lushness and sensuality of New Orleans. He also has the rare ability to
capture onscreen the unspoken layers to a relationship. That’s a very difficult
thing to do, but he has that kind of eye.”
Hicks
was immediately affected by the story and was intrigued by the notion of
characters whose lives are intertwined by luck rather than geographic proximity
or other formal constructs. “I found the whole idea of chance and fate—and how
a random event like finding a photograph in the middle of a war zone—could
change so many lives and have an impact on all the characters in the story,” he
says. “I think everybody has probably experienced something in their lives
where a chance encounter or meeting is a turning point. And I’m sure many
people feel the same way. That element is something I found very appealing.”
Hicks’s
wife, Kerry Keysen, is his partner in life and in work, serving as a
co-producer on the movie. “I am a firm believer in the power of moments,”
Heysen says, “because some people really do take their chances and follow their
dreams and I think it’s good that we show the value of doing those things.”
“The Lucky One” will be distributed by Warner
Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
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