The Last Song is a 2010 American coming-of-age teen romantic drama film developed alongside Nicholas Sparks' 2009 novel. The film was directed by Julie Anne Robinson in her feature film directorial debut and co-written by Sparks and Jeff Van Wie. The Last Song stars Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, and Greg Kinnear, and follows a troubled teenager as she reconnects with her estranged father and falls in love during a summer in a quiet Southern United States beach town.
Sparks was approached to write both the film's screenplay and the novel. Sparks completed the screenplay in January 2009, prior to the completion of the novel, making The Last Song his first script to be optioned for film. The setting, originally in North Carolina like the novel, relocated to Georgia after the states had campaigned for months to host production. Upon beginning production in Tybee Island, Georgia, and nearby Savannah, The Last Song became the first movie to be both filmed and set on Tybee Island. Filming lasted from June 15 to August 18, 2009, with much of it occurring on the island's beach and pier.
The Last Song was released by Touchstone Pictures on March 31, 2010, and was later released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 17, 2010. The film garnered unfavorable reviews from critics, who criticized the script and Cyrus' performance, with many arguing she was miscast in the lead role. In spite of this, it grossed $89 million worldwide against a $20 million budget, making it a box office success.
Plot
Following her parents’ divorce three years ago, 17-year-old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller has shown rebellious and defiant behavior. She has not spoken to her father, Steve, since the divorce, and has given up playing piano, which she loved since childhood because of her father’s influence.
Ronnie and her younger brother, Jonah, travel to Georgia to spend the summer with their father, a former Juilliard professor and concert pianist who now lives quietly in his hometown of Wrightsville Beach.
Upon arrival, Ronnie befriends Blaze, an outcast who lives with her boyfriend Marcus. That night, Marcus makes advances towards Ronnie. Blaze, mistakenly believing Ronnie had initiated the flirting, vengefully frames her for shoplifting.
Later, Ronnie discovers a loggerhead sea turtle nest by her dad's house. While protecting it from raccoons, she meets Will Blakelee, a charming and popular aquarium volunteer whose attempts at friendship she had initially rebuffed. After spending the whole night defending the eggs together, she finds herself intrigued by him.
The next day, Will takes Ronnie to the aquarium. Upon learning that he has an extensive dating history, furious, she tries to break it off with him, but he kisses her passionately. Will takes Ronnie to the large, gated mansion he lives, where she meets his parents and sister, whom he assumed were away. After Will confides that his brother died recently, he and Ronnie profess their mutual love.
At Will’s volleyball game, Ronnie overhears locals discussing a church that burned down, hinting that Steve was responsible for the fire. When Ronnie later laments this to Will, he urges his best friend Scott to divulge the truth about what happened, but Scott refuses.
While Will, Ronnie, Jonah, and Steve are watching the turtle eggs hatch, Steve collapses so they rush him to the hospital. There, Ronnie and Jonah learn that their father has terminal cancer, which has spread to his lungs. Ronnie stays with Steve in the hospital, while Jonah and Will return home to continue rebuilding the stained-glass window to replace one lost in the fire. As Steve’s cancer progresses, he eventually requests hospice.
Eventually, Scott and Will confess to Steve that the church had accidentally ignited while they and their other friends were playing with fire behind it; they allowed Steve to accept the blame. Steve opts not to relay the truth to law enforcement, but Ronnie breaks up with Will, horrified that he has allowed her father to carry the guilt for so long.
Ronnie and Jonah’s mother Kim arrives to take Jonah back home to New York City, while Ronnie stays in Georgia to take care of Steve and make up for lost time with him. Because his hands are aching, she continues working on a composition he has written, titled "For Ronnie." He listens to her play and dies just as she finishes.
While delivering a eulogy at his funeral, Ronnie declares that no words could ever express how wonderful her father was, and instead opts to play their song. Afterwards, Will meets her outside the church and compliments the song before disappearing into the crowd. Having decided to attend Juilliard, she is packing up to return home when she sees Will outside. He apologizes for everything and reveals his intention to transfer to Columbia University to be with her, and they passionately kiss.
Cast
Miley Cyrus as Veronica "Ronnie" L. Miller, an angry, rebellious 17-year-old forced to spend a summer with her estranged father. She later falls in love with Will. Liam Hemsworth as Will Blakelee, a popular and skilled beach volleyball player, Will aspires to attend a top university and volunteers at the Georgia Aquarium. He is Ronnie's love interest. Greg Kinnear as Steve Miller, Ronnie and Jonah's father, Kim's ex-husband, and former Juilliard School professor and concert pianist, who moved to Georgia after his divorce. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer and despite loving his family, he separated from them in order to cope. Kelly Preston as Kim Miller, Ronnie and Jonah's mother and Steve's ex-wife who raised her children in New York City after her divorce. Bobby Coleman as Jonah Miller, Ronnie's younger brother. Nick Lashaway as Marcus, Blaze's abusive boyfriend. Carly Chaikin as Blaze, a rebel who befriends Ronnie shortly after arriving in Georgia. Adam Barnett as Teddy, a friend of Marcus. Kate Vernon as Susan Blakelee, Will's disapproving mother. Nick Searcy as Tom Blakelee, Will's father. Melissa Ordway as Ashley, Will's ex-girlfriend. Carrie Malabre as Cassie, Ashley's best friend. Rhoda Griffis as one of Steve's doctors. Lance E. Nichols as Pastor Charlie Harris, the kind, devout pastor of the local church. Hallock Beals as Scott, Will's best friend. Stephanie Leigh Schlund as Megan Blakelee, Will's older sister.
Production Development
The Last Song began when Disney executive Jason Reed met with Miley Cyrus to discuss her future career plans. At the time, Cyrus had been known mainly for starring as a pop star on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, a children's television series that had expanded into a globally successful media franchise. As the series neared its end, Disney hoped to create a star vehicle to help Cyrus break out of the pop persona she had developed through the franchise and to introduce Cyrus to older audiences. During her meeting with Reed, Cyrus expressed a desire to film a movie similar to A Walk to Remember, a 2002 film based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. A Walk to Remember helped Mandy Moore, then a teen pop star much like Cyrus, launch an acting career. Disney called Adam Shankman, director of A Walk to Remember, who signed on to produce the potential Cyrus film along with his sister and Offspring Entertainment production company partner, Jennifer Gibgot. Tish Cyrus, Cyrus' mother and co-manager, became the film's executive producer. Cyrus' acting representation, United Talent Agency, then contacted Sparks, also a UTA client, to ask if he had plans for a novel appropriate for a film adaptation starring Cyrus.
At the time, Sparks had been wrapping up The Lucky One and beginning to ponder an original plot for his next book. The author told himself he could "either go younger than 20 or older than 50", having recently written about every age in between. Wary of venturing above 50 again after his best-seller The Notebook, Sparks had already been leaning toward writing a teenager story when he received a phone call from Gibgot on behalf of the film in August 2008. Sparks recalled, "Jennifer asked if I had anything laying around? I said no, but funny you should say that…" Sparks returned with a premise by the end of July 2008. Once the proposal had been agreed upon by Cyrus, her family, and Offspring Entertainment, Sparks, with the aid of co-screenplay writer Jeff Van Wie, completed the screenplay before starting the book. Sparks explained that such an arrangement was necessary to accommodate filming in summer 2009, as Disney had scheduled, but, "this is similar to the way it's gone with movies based on my novels; it's just out of order." Sparks and Van Wie completed the first draft of the screenplay in December 2008, the first rewrite later that month, and the second and final rewrite in January 2009. Both rewrites took about one or two days, and Sparks found them relatively simple. The finished screenplay was approximately 100 pages long. While The Last Song is not the first screenplay Sparks has written, it is his first to be optioned for film. The novel was completed in June 2009, the same time shooting for the film began, and was published on September 8, 2009 by Grand Central Publishing. The plot of the film and novel remained secret throughout development.
Julie Anne Robinson signed on to direct the film in May 2009, attracted by the emotion present in the story. The Last Song is Robinson's first feature film, although she is a veteran of television and theater. Robinson previously helmed episodes of American series such as Weeds and Grey's Anatomy and earned a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA award for her work on the BBC series Viva Blackpool.
In a June 2009 blog entry, Cyrus said she had "always been a fan of Nicholas Sparks" and that she had been waiting to do a production separate from the Hannah Montana franchise "for a long time", but had not found the time to do so due to her TV show, music, tours, and Hannah Montana: The Movie. To film The Last Song, Cyrus' contract for season four of Hannah Montana included an extra-long hiatus.
Writing and title Recognizing the popularity of A Walk to Remember as both a novel and film, Sparks "put all [his] thoughts into that, trying to make the story as different from A Walk to Remember as [he could], but try to capture the same feelings." Sparks' experiences as a father and as a high-school track and field coach also helped shape the plot, and characters Jonah Miller and Will Blakelee are respectively based on Sparks' sons Landon and Miles. Sparks felt Ronnie was the hardest character to write for because he had "never been a 17-year-old, angry teenage[d] girl". Alt URL Ronnie became a composite character inspired by several young women Sparks has known, such as his nieces. Cyrus herself influenced Ronnie fairly little, although her singing career did inspire the musical elements of the story. Ronnie plays only the piano and Cyrus only sings a small amount in the film, though she does contribute to its soundtrack.
Disney did not give Sparks limitations on the topics featured in The Last Song, which include underaged drinking, infidelity, and terminal illness, but Sparks says that Disney desired to work with him in part because "they've read my novels. My teenagers… don't do bad things. I just don't write that. I don't write about adultery, I don't write profanity ... I'll certainly have love scenes in my novels, but they're always between consenting adults." Still, Sparks acknowledges that elements of the screenplay may have been toned down by the director or the studio after he finished. As dictated by the Writers Guild of America, Sparks receives full credit for his work, although the amount of his original screenplay retained in the film is uncertain. For example, Sparks says the character of Marcus, leader of the gang of thugs, was likely altered for the film.