A great romance for hopeless romantics

In The Longest Ride the super-sexy Scott Eastwood plays a hard-headed cowboy with gorgeous Britt Robertson as the girl who steals his heart. Their story is interjected by the story of an old man who reminisces about the women who was his soulmate. It's one of those films that will sweep you off your feet and delivers a surprise ending you will never forget.

Two stories in one

"The Longest Ride is something I've never done in film before," says Sparks. "It's really two stories in one. It's the story of Ruth and Ira, a couple who've been married for a long time. Ira is now a widower. Their life together, told in flashbacks, is a fascinating story that Ira tells to Sophia, a college student at Wake Forest, and to Luke, a professional bull rider.

"The Longest Ride has an epic quality that applies to both love stories," continues the author. "It covers the love story between Ruth and Ira, which starts before World War II, and it's contrasted with the entirely different world of professional bull riding. What differentiates this film from the other adaptations of my work is its epic quality and the dual love story. It's about the way the two love stories come together."

Sparks continues: "When you meet the person with whom you fall in love, the feeling's the same, whether you're in the 1930s or in the present day. Everybody goes through the same emotions. There's universality to the way we feel and that's what I wanted to show. I think the fun of the film is trying to figure out how on Earth these two stories are going to come together in the end."

Bringing Sparks' story to the big screen is director George Tillman, Jr, whose eclectic body of work encompasses romantic comedy (Soul Food), action-drama (Men of Honor) and biopics (Notorious). "George has the ability to marry emotion with masculinity, both of which are required to tell this story," says producer Marty Bowen. "I begged him to read the script and he called me and said, 'You know what, Marty? I've been married to my high school sweetheart for 25 years, and to me, what I take out of this film is sacrifice, which is the most important thing in a relationship.' And I'm sitting there listening to George and thinking 'Oh, I've found my director.'

Bull-riding elements

While Tillman appreciated the love story, he was also captivated by the bull-riding elements. "One of the things that I enjoy as a director," he explains, "is discovering cultures where people can experience new things.

"I've always been a fan of bull riding," he continues, "and there hadn't been a lot of films dealing with that subject. I was so excited to see a story set against that background," he exclaims. "I wanted to direct The Longest Ride."

Tillman's partner at State Street Pictures, and one of this film's executive producers, Bob Teitel, was, like the director, taken with the film's theme of sacrifice. "When I read The Longest Ride, the first thing that came to my mind was the word 'sacrifice.' With Luke and Sophia, as well as Ruth and Ira, it's about what do you sacrifice for one another."

Sparks did more research for The Longest Ride than he had for any of his other novels. "My explorations covered many areas I didn't know anything about," he explains. "I needed to find out what the art world was like in the 30s and 40s; what life was like for Jewish people in North Carolina in the 1930s; and the many facets of the Professional Bull Rider's tour and its riders."

A key source for this research was Professional Bull Riders (PBR), the world's premiere bull-riding organisation, which the filmmakers brought on board as technical advisors. PBR produced the movie's bull-riding events. The PBR segments were filmed in Jacksonville, North Carolina and Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Stunt doubles

Current and active PBR Built Ford Tough Series riders served as stunt doubles for Scott Eastwood, with a few of them, such as 2009 PBR World Champion Kody Lostroh, and Billy Robinson appearing as themselves.

"Nicholas Sparks captured the essence of a PBR bull rider with his character Luke Collins," says PBR chief operating officer Sean Gleason. "We enjoyed working with Scott Eastwood to bring the character of Luke to life on the big screen as a PBR cowboy in and amongst the real-world stars of the sport."

Bowen actually had some experience with bull riding. He was born in a small central Texas town called Wortham (population 1000), which, he says, didn't even have a stoplight. "But once a week, for six weeks every summer, there was a rodeo with bull riders. I learned then that there's a section of the United States that thinks of bull riding like others think of basketball. It's part of our cultural institution.

"There is something primal about watching a man on the back of a 2000 pound beast," Bowen continues. "I think conquering that fear must be an incredibly liberating thing to do. With the character of Luke, bull riding is about conquering that fear. But it's hard to confront it when you know that it could kill you.

"You know," Bowen adds, "bull riding is like running into the fire, instead of away from it, and it takes a special breed of person to think in those terms. It's mesmerising to watch, and it's an incredible culture."

"I don't think people realise how dangerous the sport is," adds Eastwood. "Bull riders are probably the toughest guys in the world. Even our stunt guys were in awe of them. I'm fascinated by the sport and have tremendous respect for the riders."

"We've been very blessed," says Sparks - an unabashed fan of the film adaptation. "This was an impressive production. I've been very fortunate with movies based on my books, but The Longest Ride has been a unique experience. We have the bull riding world, the Luke-Sophia contemporary romance, and the Ruth and Ira marriage. It's almost like have three movies in one, and there was a lot of thought that went into bringing them all together and make it look as authentic as possible. It's all movie magic but it came together in a spectacular way."

Read more about this film and other new films opening this week at www.writingstudio.co.za