There are tons of upcoming book adaptations on the horizon, but perhaps the most highly-anticipated of the summer season is the film version of It Ends With Us. As the movie approaches its premiere on the 2024 movie schedule, its star Blake Lively doesn’t sound worried about fan reception and it makes me feel more optimistic about checking it out.
Colleen Hoover’s romance novel has only grown in popularity since its 2016 release, as it was the No. 1 bestselling novel of 2023, per Publisher’s Weekly. So once the movie hits theaters this August, there will be tons of readers judging the film vs. the book. When Blake Lively was approached about that this week when joining Colleen Hoover for Book Bonanza in Texas, she said this:
Some people will always like a book better than a movie and some people like a movie better than the book, but I think that we just did our best to honor the book and honor the fans, and, I think, really make something that works even by itself. If you don't know the book, the movie works. I don't think there's any way that if you read the book and you saw the movie that you wouldn't be thrilled. We really worked hard on that. I also believe if you saw the movie and then read the book, you wouldn't go, 'Hold on, this isn't like [the other].' You can do either. I think they're both really beautiful.
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Colleen Hoover, who stood right next to Lively as they spoke to Entertainment Tonight at the event, echoed her words, saying that she feels the upcoming movie has “stayed so true to the book.”
Thus far, some fans online have been hard on production, between not approving of Lively’s casting as Lily and people not being happy with the adaptation aging up the characters. Hoover had said that she made the decision herself because she felt it made more sense for the characters and storyline.
The leading character of Lily was 23 in the original book, but in the movie, she’ll be 35. Considering the story deals with the heavy topic of an abusive relationship and one of the main characters is a neurosurgeon, I personally welcome the change. It’s great to hear both of them advocate for the film so much too. As Lively continued:
Colleen, she has such a dedicated fan base. [She was] self-published initially, so this is somebody who the fans really authored the success of your stories. She wrote stories that resonated with people and didn't go to all the traditional means that people go to. She went directly to the people she was speaking to and they came forward in masses. … This story resonated with so many people, so there's a great responsibility that comes with that. You want to honor this book and this character that people love so much, but you also want to bring a life and a humanity to it that is true to who you are. It's a lot of different things that you want to accomplish in this story.
In the movie, Lively’s Lily meets a neurosurgeon named Ryle (played by Justin Baldoni) and begins a relationship with him, but it quickly turns abusive. At the same time, Lily reconnects with her first love Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), who Ryle turns incredibly jealous of. As Lively continued in the interview:
I'm just so proud of this film. I'm just so proud to be here and sharing it with Colleen and the fans. It's just really special. It was a great honor to take on Lily, and I'm so proud.
Lively also added that she finds there to be a “great responsibility” to tackling the film version of It Ends With Us. The actor’s comments have me more optimistic about the movie being of quality. You can see if you agree when the movie hits theaters on August 9.
