A Decade and A Half Later, The Notebook Is Still the Top Romantic Film of Them All!

We all remember what a whirlwind The Notebook was when it hit the screens. People were rushing to the cinemas to watch the epic romance. The film is a touching story about true love and how it never dims or fades away, a fairy tale of sorts that every little girl dreams of, and every man promises to give. Nicholas Sparks penned the story, and while Noah and Allie’s story may seem like the perfect fairytale, the truth is that Sparks’ inspiration was a real-life couple. So the moral of the story? True love does exist.

So, Who Was the Inspiration?

It wasn’t just any couple who inspired Nicholas Sparks to write the touching novel. It was Sparks’s former wife’s grandparents. Sparks describes the now late grandparents as “two wonderful people,” and he shared that they had spent over six decades together! Now if that isn’t true love, then we don’t know what is!

As it turns out, Sparks’s former wife was looking forward to having her grandparents at the wedding. Unfortunately, their poor health meant that they both couldn’t make it, and it was very tough for Sparks’s former wife to exchange her vows without them there to see it and share the moment with her. So the newlyweds decided to recreate their big day the very next day, dressing up in their wedding garments and knocking at the door of Sparks’s former wife’s grandparents’ home, wedding cake and video of the nuptials at hand!

Of course, the old couple was happy to see them, and they all sat and ate the wedding cake and watched the video together. Afterward, the old couple shared their incredible love story with Nicholas, who eventually ended up using parts of it for his book. The message that Nicholas got from their story is the message that he shared with the world through his fictional novel, The Notebook. What better message to give a pair of newlyweds on their very first day of marriage, than to tell them how true love lasts a lifetime, and maybe longer than that, too.

What You May Not Know About the Film

This was the first of Nicholas Sparks’s several novels to be made into a film. The book came to life in the form of a movie that became incredibly popular in 2004. The romantic drama instantly became a classic film, and Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams became the most talked about a couple of the year! The pair had a chemistry between them that was practically palpable, but did you know that it was almost Britney Spears who got the Role of Allie in the flick? Somehow, we feel that it would not have been the same! How about Tom Cruise as Noah? Yes, that almost happened, too!

Tom Cruise was Steven Spielberg’s pick for the leading role, back in 1996, when he supposed to direct the film. Another funny fact is that at the time of filming, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams didn’t like each other much – they weren’t getting on, and yet they were playing each other’s love interests in a romance! Yikes! Of course, this is probably more surprising, not only because of their on-screen chemistry but also because they later went on to be one of Hollywood’s ‘it’ couples (though they didn’t last, unlike their roles in The Notebook)! When their relationship ended for good in 2009, Gosling was humorous about how angry and upset and sad the public was about their split, that he and McAdams felt like they had to console the people instead of being on the receiving end of reassurance over the breakup! Of course, it was inevitable that the world would parallel their real-life relationship to the one they acted out in the film.

More on Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks didn’t only bring the world to tears with The Notebook. The author has penned many romantic dramas that are tear-worthy! He is a legend when it comes to fiction, and the heart and any of his film adaptations will leave you moved!

His stories have the most exciting twists and glorious happy endings, though not the way you imagined. If you’re looking for an excellent romantic fix, look no further than Safe Haven, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, The Last Song, The Lucky One, Dear John, and A Walk to Remember.