Nicholas Sparks joins The Kathy Romano Show to chat about his latest novel, 'Remain'

WBEB-FM / B101 Philly

Transcript

00:00Welcome to the Kathy Romano Show on B101. He is a literary phenomenon behind some of the most

00:05beloved romantic stories of our generation, from The Notebook to A Walk to Remember with over 140

00:10copies sold worldwide and every single one of his books hitting the New York Times bestseller list.

00:16He's now breaking new ground with his 26th novel, Remain, a supernatural romantic thriller co-written

00:21with acclaimed filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. Please welcome New York Times bestselling author

00:25Nicholas Sparks. Hi, Nicholas. Hey, great to be here. Thanks for having me.

00:29Yeah, thanks so much for coming on. So this is your first collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan?

00:34Absolutely. I mean, and it's exciting. I don't know. I don't actually know. It might be his

00:39first collaboration, too, I think. So Knight and Bhavna have been friends of mine for years. So

00:44when this interview came over, I was like, oh, I need to find out about this collaboration.

00:48Absolutely. Yeah, it's fun. It was interesting. It kind of came about our Hollywood, our respective

00:53Hollywood peoples came up with the idea of getting the two of us together. And in the end,

00:59a meeting was set up and we each had the I hate meetings without a purpose. So the purpose of that

01:06meeting was for each of us to come up with a story that would work as a novel in a film and satisfy my

01:12readers and his fans. And so we get to Philadelphia in May of 2023. We pitch each other our respective

01:20stories, you know, just taglines, basically. And in that meeting, we decide to do his story. And

01:26from there, we start hammering out the vast majority of the details that end up in Remain,

01:32you know, the main character, secondary characters, what happens, events in the novel, what it's all

01:36about. So we had that about 14 months later, he calls and he says, this could be my next film. And I

01:42said, OK, I guess it'll be my next novel. And there we go. And that was that was not that long ago.

01:47That was in August of 2024 that he said that. And of course, the novel's coming out,

01:52you know, now and then the film will be out next year.

01:56So what was it like merging your signature romantic storytelling with his darker side?

02:00Less challenging than you would think. Knight and I both have we try to tell interesting stories,

02:06stories with characters that have emotional arcs and journeys. We both kind of like twists at the end.

02:12So for us, or at least speaking from my perspective, it seemed less different,

02:18less surprising than it might seem to to to other people. I've had love stories and to keep them

02:23unique, to keep them different than things I've written before, I've really had to vary all sorts

02:29of elements in my story. So I've written love stories with danger and love stories with thriller

02:33elements and love stories with adventure elements and love stories with mystery elements.

02:37This one, I just included a supernatural element. And there we are. And I think people are really

02:44going to enjoy both the novel and the film. So what can people expect from this novel?

02:48Well, what do you expect from me? Right. A good, meaningful love story that feels real and honest

02:54and hopefully moves the reader and in all those ways that moves the readers to the point that they

03:00root for the characters to fall in love and actually feel a bit of it themselves as it's happening.

03:05So you have that. And of course, you have some of the night elements, right? A little bit of

03:11some supernatural elements that hopefully will surprise the reader, maybe, maybe scare them a

03:17little, but certainly keep them on the edge of their seat as the rest of the story unfolds.

03:22Traditional for night is to do that twist at the end. Are we going to see a twist? Maybe?

03:27Yes, of course, there's a twist at the end. And here's the fun part, right? People say,

03:32well, if they read the novel first, won't they know the ending of the film? And this, of course,

03:38assumes that the film and the novel have the same ending, which I'm not going to tell you,

03:45because we do want to preserve Knight's ability to surprise people in the theaters,

03:50even if they have read the novel.

03:52Oh, I love this. I love this. Okay. So is the film already in the works? Is he filming yet?

03:57It filmed. It is done. It's filmed from, I think the film began, filming began in June of 2025,

04:04just a few months ago, June, ended in August of 2025. As we speak, I think Knight is in the editing

04:10room and he's probably more than halfway done, at least with the first draft of the film. And of course,

04:15there's multiple rounds of editing and thing, but it's certainly on track. And from what I know,

04:22he's thrilled with how the film is turning out. And of course, I'm thrilled with how the novel turned

04:26out. You have an event here in Philadelphia, Monday, October 13th, just one day before the

04:31book release. What is the event?

04:32Ah, it's fun, right? We're going to be up on stage. We'll be talking. We'll tell people. I think they'll

04:38get a little bit similar to this conversation. Hey, how did this come about? But also what it was like

04:44working with each other? What are some of the funny stories maybe on set or when writing? What

04:49was it like when you two met? What do you, what do you two do when you meet? What do you talk about?

04:53Whatever people want to know. I think there'll be a little bit of that, that kind of conversation

04:56certainly learned the behind the scenes stuff going on both with regard to both projects. And

05:01then of course you have a chance to get photographs with us, which is always fun.

05:05So it'll be both you and Knight and it's at the Miller Theater?

05:09It is. It's at the Miller Theater. Looking forward to seeing a big crowd.

05:12Yeah. People can buy tickets at ensembleartsphilly.org. Were you on set for the filming

05:17of the movie? And was he, I mean, I guess he's not sitting in the room looking over your shoulder

05:21while you're writing, but. Yeah, he was not here when I was writing, but we spoke two or three times

05:26a week throughout the writing process, both the screenplay and the novel. And I was there a few

05:32times, a couple of times on set for a few days, but I wasn't there the whole time. It was on a very

05:37tight shooting schedule. And my presence can be a bit of a distraction, not because I'm famous or

05:42anything, but primarily because I have nothing to do. Right. Everyone on the film set has something

05:47to do. You know, they're, they're, they're doing lights, they're doing camera, they're moving,

05:51setting up scenes, right. They're serving food, they're driving cars. Me, I just sit there and

05:57get people's way. So, you know, I want, it was a very tight filming schedule. I wanted to make sure

06:03that he could do what he needed without the feeling that I was watching him over his shoulder.

06:08So we told people that we were going to interview you here around the studio and they're like, Oh,

06:12the notebook, you know, of course everyone loves that novel, but it just had its Broadway adaptation

06:18and is now heading out on a national tour. How does it feel to see your work continue to evolve

06:22across so many different mediums page to screen to stage? Yeah, a lot of fun. And, and, and it is

06:29different. You know, if you've read the novel or seen the film, this is a new way to experience that

06:35story. And they did such a wonderful job. Ingrid did such a wonderful job on the music and, and

06:40Becca did such a wonderful job on the book. Uh, I was enthralled by the notebook on Broadway and,

06:47and I'm excited that everyone will get to experience this story in a new way.

06:51After 26 novels, all New York Times bestsellers, what still excites you about storytelling and keeps

06:57bringing you back to the page? Same thing that did the very first book, right? It's the challenge

07:01of doing it. Can I tell a story? Can I tell an original story? Can I, can I pull it off one more

07:06time? It is the challenge of writing that that's really much more of a driving factor in my reason

07:12to write than the love of writing. I don't necessarily love writing. I find it very challenging

07:19and tedious at times and irritating and frustrating. And there's a lot of editing and you just wonder why

07:26you can't put things down, right. The very first time they come down on the page, it can be a journey

07:31to, to write a novel, but the challenge is always there. Can I, can I tell a story that will enthrall

07:37the readers and perhaps makes them remember the story forever? That's always the goal.

07:42And it's always a challenge because we all know some books you remember for a long time and some of

07:49them you don't actually, most of them you don't, they kind of run together with other stories,

07:54but every now and then you try to, you have a story that you, you remember for whatever reason,

07:59maybe it's a certain period in your life or it resonated in a certain way. Um, you know, I remember

08:06where I was, when I was, when I read where the red fern grows and such a sad story in the end with

08:14Dan and little Anne and their poor dogs. It was so sad. It was so sad. Right. But, but boy,

08:21I remember, I, I remember that story very well. And, um, to me, those are the novels or films that

08:28I liked the best. They're the ones that I can not only reread, but even if I don't reread,

08:34I remember a lot more of the story than I would other novels.

08:39Well, I'm excited for remain both to read your novel and to see the movie. Nicholas,

08:43thank you so much for joining me today.

08:44Thank you for having me. This was exciting and you have a wonderful day.

08:48Remain hits shelves on October 14th. That's this Tuesday. And Nicholas and Knight will be at the

08:52Miller theater in Philadelphia on Monday, October 13th for all the event details. And to learn more

08:57about this exciting new collaboration, you can visit NicholasSparks.com. Best of luck with the book

09:02and the tour. Thank you so much.

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