A Walk to Remember put Mandy Moore on the map and had fans swooning over Shane West — and now, the Nicholas Sparks’ book is getting another movie makeover.
The beloved 2002 romance film is getting a reboot, Deadline reported on Thursday, February 27, after Monarch Media secured the rights to the story. The company reportedly plans to develop a new version of the movie with the original producers Denise Di Novi and Hunt Lowry, per the outlet. (Us Weekly has reached out for comment.)
Steve Barnett, Alan Powell and Vicky Patel from Monarch Media will also serve producers on the project. Di Novi and Margaret French-Isaac will represent Di Novi Pictures as producers, while Lowry and Patty Reed are joining the project on behalf of Roserock Films.
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“A Walk to Remember has endured as a beloved coming-of-age drama, captivating audiences with its heartfelt story of young love, personal growth and the power of faith for decades,” Barnett, who worked for Di Novi during the original movie, told Deadline. “We could not be more excited to bring a new version of Nicholas Sparks’ timeless story to audiences and are particularly thrilled to work alongside the original film’s producers, Denise and Hunt.”
Di Novi said she’s equally as excited about the reboot, telling the outlet, “I am so grateful to Steve and Monarch Media for giving all of us the opportunity to bring this enduring and inspirational story of faith, hope and love to a new generation, all qualities we need now more than ever.”
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Lowry said he’s “delighted” to be “bringing this timeless story to a new generation of moviegoers” and to reunite with Di Novi after working together more than two decades ago.
A Walk to Remember tells the love story between ultra religious teen Jamie Sullivan and bad boy Landon Carter. In the 2002 film, Moore played the quiet Jamie, while West played the rebellious Landon who falls for her before finding out she’s battling leukemia.
“I had such a visceral reaction to it that I remember not being able to read because I was almost hyperventilating while I was crying,” Moore, 40, told the Los Angeles Times in 2010 about getting the role. “It was my first movie and I know people say it may be cliché and it’s a tearjerker or it’s cheesy, but for me, it’s the thing I’m most proud of.”
Eight years later, Moore exclusively told Us how “bananas” it is to see A Walk to Remember still resonating with fans.
“It [makes] me feel really old! It’s crazy. It feels like another lifetime ago,” the actress said in January 2018. “But I’m so happy to celebrate it and so happy that people still — it’s relevant and still means something to people. That means a lot.”
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For Sparks, the story is even more important and deeply personal because he based Jamie on his sister Danielle Sparks Lewis who died in June 2000 at the age of 33.
“Like Jamie, my sister got cancer. Like Jamie, my sister met someone. And like Landon, there was a long period of time when this fellow couldn’t imagine himself marrying a girl like her,” the author wrote on his official website. “And yet, in the end, he couldn’t help himself. Even when he knew she was sick, even when he knew that she might not make it, this man asked my sister to marry him.”
Sparks recalled, “It was just about the sweetest thing that’s ever been done for anyone, and I suppose I wrote this novel not only so that you could get to know my sister, but so that you would know what a wonderful thing it was that her husband once did for her.”
