The Last Song
Release Date: March 31, 2010
A drama centered on a rebellious girl who is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.
Writers: Nicholas Sparks, Jeff Van Wie
Cast: Miley Cyrus, Bobby Coleman, Liam Hemsworth, Hallock Beals, Nick Lashaway, Carly Chaikin, Nick Searcy, Kate Vernon, Kelly Preston, Greg Kinnear
Director: Julie Anne Robinson
Runtime: 1 Hr 24 min
The Last Song is an upcoming 2010 American coming-of-age drama film developed alongside the Nicholas Sparks novel by the same name. 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, Greg Kinnear, Kelly Preston and Liam Hemsworth and follows a troubled teenager as she reconnects with her estranged father and falls in love during a summer in a quiet Southern beach town. The film will be distributed by Touchstone Pictures, an alternative film label of The Walt Disney Company.
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 North Carolina like the novel, changed to Georgia after states 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 shot and set in 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 originally scheduled for wide release on January 8, 2010, but has since been postponed to March 31, 2010.
At seventeen, Veronica "Ronnie" Miller (Miley Cyrus) remains as rebellious and distant as she was the day after her parents' ugly divorce and father's subsequent relocation to Georgia three years ago. Once a classical piano prodigy under the tutelage of her father, Steve Miller (Greg Kinnear), Ronnie now rejects the instrument and has not spoken to her father since he left. While Juilliard School has been interested in her since she was young, Ronnie refuses to attend.
Now, Steve is given the chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter when her mother, Kim (Kelly Preston) sends the rebellious teen and her younger brother, Jonah (Bobby Coleman), to spend the summer with him. Steve, a former Juilliard School professor and concert pianist, now lives a quiet life in Tybee Island, the small Georgia beach town where he grew up, working on a stained glass window for the local church to replace the one the church lost in a fire.
Upon arrival, Ronnie is miserable, hostile and defensive toward all those around her, including handsome, popular Will Blakelee (Liam Hemsworth) - until, after both she and Will become involved in protecting a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest, she discovers he is deeper than she believed. As Ronnie falls in love with Will, she also manages to bond with her father Steve through the one thing they have in common- music. Steve passes away because of his horrible cancer.
