By Sarah Sluis
Miley Cyrus has just made the shrewdest career move ever. Forget adapting an existing novel, Cyrus' team has commissioned Nicholas Sparks to write a book and screenplay tailored for her. Her team has
good reason to want so much control over her next film. The incredibly bankable star of Disney's Hannah Montana, singer of sold-out concerts and a record-breaking IMAX concert film, is literally growing out of her role, making her success in a teen-to-adult part crucial. With her slightly racy Annie Leibovitz-led Vanity Fair shoot a misfire, the Cyrus team is under extra pressure to prove she has the ability to switch to teen and adult roles�enter proven property, Nicholas Sparks.
Sparks' books have been great vehicles for teen-to-adult stars. Featuring pull-on-heartstring romances and strong family ties, and having enraptured legions of female viewers, these films are exactly what growing Hannah Montana fans will seek. Singer Mandy Moore benefited from her turn as a preacher's daughter with a terminal disease in A Walk to Remember, and Rachel McAdams' career took off after she followed her performance as Queen Bee in Mean Girls with an is-that-her? performance later that summer as sweet Southern Allie Hamilton in The Notebook. The Notebook in particular had an indie following that resonated with teen viewers. The word-of-mouth tagline (which no marketer could have thought up) went something like: "Have you seen The Notebook yet? Ohmigod, I cried so hard, I was just bawling." Montana fans, who similarly engage in the content across platforms by buying CDs, going to concerts, and dressing up like her as Halloween, will need an emotionally engaging film that will inspire multiple viewings and collaborative chatter.
The genre, too, represents a shift from childhood wish fulfillment to teenage wish fulfillment. Miley Cyrus made her fame out of the proven "teen double life" genre, which I remember from my Nickelodeon childhood days. A literal representation of a childhood desire to be special and to become independent, they involve tweens who have access to a "phone booth" moment, wherein they transform to a television star ("The Famous Jett Jackson"), rock star ("Hannah Montana"), or superpower liquid ("The Secret World of Alex Mack"). What makes these television shows so compelling is their preservation of the awkward, normal tween character. Shifting between the normal and super personas, viewers experience the transformation moment again and again. Sparks' adaptations keep the fairy tale in the romance, making its couples part of a special, fated love blocked by circumstances, you guessed it, again and again. If Hannah Montana tapped into a kid's desire to be special, a Nicholas Sparks adaptation will tap into the teen desire to be loved by someone special�a perfect project to allow Hannah Montana to age with her viewers as they transition to adulthood.
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