While it is not uncommon for a writer to pen a script with a certain actor or actress in mind, what is not quite as common is for an actor or actress to request a story and a part to be written specifically for him/her. But in the case of The Last Song, the newest film based on the work of author Nicholas Sparks and starring Miley Cyrus, that is exactly how it came about.

In fact, Sparks even went so far as to write the screenplay (his first) before he wrote the actual novel so that production on the film could begin. How that affected his writing? Not much, he claims. "I was just really trying to make the best, I guess, story that I could with the most interesting characters that I could," said Sparks at a press conference in Los Angeles last Saturday.

But as the press conference unfolded and those in the film spoke about the process, what became quite apparent was that Cyrus' presence in and influence on the film was one that simply could not be denied.

"I said I liked animals, I liked music, hot Australians... that was kind of what I tried make him write into the book," joked Cyrus about her early communication with Sparks. And what do you know? All of that is in there. Even when it came to choosing her leading man (Liam Hemsworth), Cyrus describes excitedly telling director Julie Ann Robinson that Hemsworth was the one for the part not after he had auditioned, but after he had simply opened the door for her.

Continue: 1 2