Is Anne Hathaway’s The Idea of You based on a Wattpad story?

The tween Wattpad years are creeping up as Anne Hathaway’s The Idea of You movie has many questioning if the storyline is an adaptation of a popular story from the online platform.

In the years of Twilight, One Direction, and teen dreams, Wattpad was a front-runner for young fans to live out their fantasies. Aspiring writers and authors published their work on Wattpad. It catered to every genre possible, had chapter updates, and was infamous for its fanfics.

The online platform has led to many authors becoming officially published. It has also raised a question about the upcoming movie The Idea of You. Anne Hathaway stars in the movie about an age-gap celebrity romance. A movie adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel.

But long-time Wattpad fans couldn’t help but be reminded of a popular story that was published years ago. The Idea of You has been embroiled in rumors that it’s based on a popular Harry Styles One Direction fanfic.

Is The Idea of You about One Direction?

No, not entirely. Robinne Lee revealed the original inspiration behind her novel was slightly inspired by Harry Style from One Direction. But it has no connection to Wattpad or a fanfic.

The Idea of You stars Anne Hathaway as Solène (Sophie), a 40-year-old divorced single mother and gallery owner. At the request of her ex-husband, she takes their teenage daughter to a music festival. She ends up meeting Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the 24-year-old lead singer of a boyband called August Moon.

An age-gap romance ensues as both Solène and Hayes begin to develop a complex relationship and fall in love. Lee explains that what inspired the book was a YouTube video of a young singer she had never seen before.

“A few years ago, my husband was away on business, and I was up late surfing music videos on YouTube when I came across the face of a boy I’d never seen in a band I’d never paid attention to, and it was so aesthetically perfect it took me by surprise. It was like…art. I spent a good hour or so Googling and trying to figure out who this kid was, and in doing so, I discovered that he often dated older women, and so the seed was planted,” she said to blogger Deborah Kalb.

Years later, Lee told Vogue in 2020 that her novel was loosely inspired by Harry Styles from One Direction. Styles at the time was the subject of a plethora of online fan fiction under the same pretence as Lee’s novel. But catered more to the idea of an ordinary female lead capturing the gaze of the singer. It’s why many Wattpad fans felt The Idea of You was based on a fanfiction.

“This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles. 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,” said the author.

The Idea of You is set to release on May 2, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video.

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