Fictional tattooed boybanders and screaming teens that appear in the upcoming film “The Idea of You” are evoking fan memories of a real band from the 2010s: One Direction.
The film, which debuts on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, is based on a 2017 novel by Robinne Lee, which she said was loosely inspired by former One Direction frontman Harry Styles. The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, not long after band member Zayn Malik called it quits.
The movie follows Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the leader of the fictional band August Moon, and his romance with an older fan, Solene Marchand (Anne Hathaway). While its premise has been divisive among fans, some say that it’s “the closest thing” to a 1D reunion that they’re going to get anytime soon.
“It’s just kind of fun to be able to reminisce on what One Direction stood for,” said Katie Howell, 24.
The trailer for the movie (which set the record for the most watched trailer for any original streaming movie) made Howell and other former boy band-obsessed fans on social media nostalgic for the height of One Direction’s fame. Although all of the band’s members have launched solo careers, fans have remained heartbroken by the group’s demise.
Hollywood has been adapting fan fiction and fan-inspired literature into film for years — “The Idea of You” isn’t even the only Styles-inspired story to be turned into a movie. The “After” series, which was written by Anna Todd and started as an alternate universe fanfic about a bad boy version of Styles, was turned into a film franchise in 2019.
But “The Idea of You,” some fans say, is the first adaptation that appears to actually replicate the look, feel and fervor over One Direction. The film also plays on self-insert tropes, which means Hathaway’s character, Solene, acts as a sort of stand-in for the viewer fantasizing about being swept away by a boy band member.
[Self-insert] stories definitely have a special place in the fandom. It’s an opportunity to do that kind of parasocial imagining of what it would be like to meet or interact with your favorite celebrity.
-Ashley Hedrick McKenzie, assISTANT professor at Clemson University who has researched One Direction fan fiction
“[Self-insert] stories definitely have a special place in the fandom,” said Ashley Hedrick McKenzie, an assistant professor of health communication at Clemson University who has researched One Direction fan fiction. “It’s an opportunity to do that kind of parasocial imagining of what it would be like to meet or interact with your favorite celebrity.”
Lee, the book’s author, and those involved in the film have clarified that the fictional band August Moon and its lead, Hayes Campbell, are distinct from One Direction and Styles. Still, that has not stopped Directioners — the nickname for fans of One Direction —from drawing comparisons.
Annie Mack, who is a fan of One Direction and Galitzine, said the movie reminds her of when she was a preteen fangirl during the band's peak years.
As Directioners come into adulthood, Mack said “The Idea of You” transports some fans back to a time when their favorite band made them feel “very emotional and very passionate.”
“I look back on my One Direction memories very fondly,” Mack, 24, said. “I loved being that age and I loved being 13. It was all so magical.”
In the lead-up to its release, One Direction fans online have pulled images from old concerts and compared them to stills from the movie.
Others have praised August Moon’s singles “Closer” and “Dance Before We Walk,” because they sound reminiscent of old One Direction songs.
There’s now even an August Moon band Instagram page.
Many said they feel like the interest in the fake boy band in “The Idea of You” is demonstrative of the void fans have felt since One Direction went on hiatus.
“Things are so different now with all five members of One Direction and they’re very different,” Mack said. “And looking back at it, maybe this wasn’t the best situation for them. Maybe it wouldn’t be good if they stayed together or wouldn’t be good to have an actual reunion. Maybe all of that would be very unhealthy for everyone. So like this is kind of the closest we can get to that without it being bad for anybody.”
Michael Showalter, the film’s director, told NBC News that he enlisted Savan Kotecha, a songwriter who has written hits for numerous pop stars including One Direction, to write the August Moon songs. He also said he watched behind-the-scenes videos of One Direction on tour when crafting the August Moon and Hayes Campbell.
Showalter said that he wasn’t aware of the online chatter about “The Idea of You” among fan communities, but he got an inkling of fans’ relationship to the film when he showed it at a college film festival.
“It was all 18 to 20 year olds, mostly female audience,” he said. “They really liked the movie, but they also were laughing and reacting at certain things that surprised me.”
The reason for the laughter, viewers told him afterward, was that it was a strange experience to watch fan fiction get “elevated into a serious movie.”
For some of the viewers, Showalter said reading fan fiction used to be a “dirty secret” and watching an adaptation felt “bizarre” to them.
“There are these moments that sort of feel like, I guess, fan fiction tropes in the movie,” he said. “Those were the moments that elicited those reactions. And it was a sort of a nervous laughter rooted in some deep seated connection that they have to it that I genuinely had no concept of.”
Still, not all Directioners are on board with the adaptation. Some chafed at fan fiction adaptations in general because they view them as disrespectful of the real people they are drawing inspiration from. The “After” movies in particular were controversial among Directioners, who felt as though the toxic main character based on Styles shouldn’t be associated with the singer.
Howell said that she thinks “The Idea of You” will be a more respectful portrayal of Styles because the Hayes Campbell character wasn’t written to be a manipulative or bad guy.
“I hope for Harry’s sake, this is the last series,” Howell said about Styles fanfic getting adapted. “But I think, at the end of the day, it’s obviously bringing attention towards Harry. It’s bringing the attention towards One Direction. … Everyone is kind of benefiting from it.”
