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Some stories refuse to stay on the page. The Hollywood Reporter’s Beyond the Book column explores what happens when books make the leap to screen and beyond — unpacking what changed, how it was done and why it matters with the creatives who made it.
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[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Prime Video’s The Last Sunrise.]
Anna Todd is welcoming the next chapter in her romance universe — and this time, it’s personal.
For her novel, The Last Sunrise, which was published last May, the author’s protagonist battles tuberous sclerosis, the same genetic disorder her son has — he also has autism and epilepsy — and a disorder that results in noncancerous tumors growing in various parts of the body.
Writing a fictional story with such a close personal parallel brought great responsibility: Todd wanted to do justice to people living with chronic illnesses while still giving the story a happy ending. With numerous books and films exploring characters with chronic illnesses or special needs — including The Fault in Our Stars, My Sister’s Keeper and Five Feet Apart — Todd was ready to move away from the typical “sick-lit” stories that end in heartbreak and sadness and leave audiences reaching for tissues.
“We all love The Fault in Our Stars and we all love these kinds of films. But as I got older, and as my son got older, and I kept hearing stories from other parents with kids — not only with epilepsy, but just with all kinds of special needs or chronic illness. I realized, where are the happy endings?” Todd tells The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom. “Again, I love these cult classic films, but there is a little bit of hopelessness when it comes along with that.”
She adds: “My son might not ever be at a place where he can date or fall in love, but there are so many people that are living life to the max as much as they can. We’re not seeing it in media. I’m not reading it in these romance novels. It’s always a sad ending. So I wanted to represent that there is hope and there are people falling in love despite having chronic illness.”
Enter The Last Sunrise. Todd tells the story of Oriah (Ry) Pera, a 22-year-old dealing with chronic health issues, including tuberous sclerosis and epilepsy. After joining her mother on a summer business trip in Mallorca, Spain, her world is turned upside down after she meets a charming local named Julián.
Though there are “many different versions of tuberculosis,” with Todd’s son’s experience being more severe than her protagonist’s, the author wanted to write a realistic reality but not have Ry deal with “as many complications.”
“I wanted to make sure that I was doing it justice. But at the same time, it came so naturally because I’ve been [versed] in this illness since my son was born, and he’s 14 now. So it definitely shaped the story,” she tells THR.
After publication, the book became a bestseller and had already been optioned for a film adaptation. Fast forward more than a year later, and Todd’s The Last Sunrise will make its debut on Prime Video in a film adaptation directed by Carlson Young and starring Maia Reficco as Ry and Fernando Lindez as Julián. Eva Longoria stars as Ry’s mother, Isolde.
Todd, who produces the film, recalls the emotions of visiting the set for the first time, during a scene that struck a personal chord with her experience with her son. “My first day on set was a pretty heavy scene that I could honestly barely watch it being filmed,” Todd says. “I’m like, ‘This is real life for me.'”
With such an intimate connection, Todd credits the creative team for being so collaborative and respectful in portraying Ry’s illness with deep care.
“There’s such a delicate balance between wanting this to feel romantic and hopeful and amazing, but also this is a real thing. It’s not something we made up and we can do whatever we want type of situation,” Todd says.
The author specifically praised Reficco over her thorough research on epilepsy in an effort to offer an authentic portrayal. “She really did it a little too well. It was jarring to watch it, but she had already done her own research, which I really appreciated. It made me respect her even more, and feel even more safe with her playing this role,” Todd says, adding that she was always available to give insight when needed.
“I think the most important thing for me, and with the respect that it deserves, was depicting this as close to reality as we could,” Reficco tells THR. “And with that came research on my end — for example, different types of seizures, epilepsy and what can cause epilepsy. But also, specifically with Carlson, we had a lot of rehearsal, conversations and material that I went through. My acting coach, who’s been my coach for 10 years, was in Mallorca with me, and we physically tried different things. It was not something left up to chance or on the day [to] figure it out. If we had neglected that, it would have invalidated what we were trying to do with it. I was from the get-go very much set on trying to do my best.”
Meanwhile, Todd credits Carlson for being “so thorough with everything” and even making subtle dialogue changes to acknowledge how things would actually operate when navigating living with the illness that Ry does.
Lindez’s Julián, on the other end, is a representation of Mallorca residents. In the book and film, Julián works with his father, Mateo (Andrés Velencoso), owning historic local docks in Mallorca, the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands. Their family business is threatened when Ry’s mother, Isolde (played by Longoria), tries to demolish or buy out the family’s property to build a hotel.
“He has such a specific idea of the way the world is and the way other people are — not being able to depend on anyone and not trusting anyone. He has this enormous responsibility on his shoulders for this hundreds-year-old family business. He’s a young guy but he’s also very passionate about environmentalism, which we carried into the film,” says Todd of her story’s leading man.
The tourism affecting Julián and his father’s business is a “huge social issue” in Mallorca, Todd says. The story’s setting came to her in a dream, and honoring the island’s residents was imperative.
“Even going to Mallorca, there is a huge social issue,” the writer says. Through her character Julián, Todd was able to showcase that “sometimes these tourists are just people too [and] are struggling in their own way.”
On his character’s transformation in the film, Lindez tells THR, “I think at the beginning of the movie, you see a different Julián. A very flirty boy with this Spanish sense of humor, of always being tricky and playful. But I think Maia’s character opens what he really is, as a noble guy, a good man that loves taking care of people, especially when he sees what she’s going through.”
“He’s the kind of character that takes on everything and doesn’t take care of himself ever,” Todd says. “He just thinks about everyone else and what he should be doing instead of what would make him happy. So I think she really brings that freedom out for him the same way he does for her.”
Together, the couple showcases a love blossoming in limited time in the picturesque backdrop of the island.
“I want to move there,” Reficco says of the film’s setting. “I could live there forever. The island is beautiful. People are fantastic. There’s the best food ever. Best beaches ever. All in all, no notes. It is such a key character. I feel like Mallorca is the spirit of the movie, and getting to spend time where it is unreal alongside this whole thing.”
“We explored a lot,” Lindez says of acclimating to the location while filming. “Building a connection with the island [was] especially [important] for me, building what Julián feels for this place. … He’s an adventurous spirit who loves living in the moment, and he’s trying to show her that there are other possibilities,” he adds.
After writing the After series in 2014, a five-book young-adult romance, including a prequel appropriately titled Before, Todd‘s books went on to become feature films starring Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin. The films, which center on the turbulent, and often toxic on-and-off relationship between Tessa Young and Hardin Scott, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide in 35 languages.
For her new love story, Todd wanted to explore a different dynamic than the one between Tessa and Hardin.
“I wrote the After series in 2014, and I feel like the content that romance girls were all consuming, and the kind of men that we were obsessed with, is definitely looking very different these days. So I wanted it to be different, ” the author says. “I still love enemies to lovers. I love a banter-y, smart-aleck type of relationship. So I wanted them both to be sassy in their own way, but not like with the After series [and] the couple against each other the entire time.”
“This time, I wanted it to be, especially with them and this ticking time bomb of her health and the setting being so beautiful, them against all of these obstacles around them, sticking together and leaning on each other instead of just at each other all the time, which is how the After series was.”
The Last Sunrise “showcases a love that’s very much based on upholding and comforting and being with each other,” Reficco says. “I think that’s a very special part of it. The center conflict of it all doesn’t really rely on mistreating each other or the toxicity of it all, which we all know and love in books, films and hopefully not in real life. But I think there’s something quite special to be highlighted about a film that its center conflict doesn’t really revolve around mistreating each other. That’s quite sweet.”
“I think they push each other in so many different ways. Julián, he’s trying to show her a new way of life that she never experienced before. I think that’s beautiful,” Lindez continues about the onscreen couple.
“I think Julián represents a lot of what Ry dreams of, and vice versa. They found so much that they didn’t even know could be possible with each other, with a partner. What drew them to each other was the fact that they were so opposite on the surface, but at the end of the day, very similar at the core,” Reficco adds.
Despite being a different love story, Todd’s After films grossed $170 millioin at the worldwide box office and later topped Netflix’s charts. Todd served as writer for the first two films and producer. Though successful, the adaptation journey was a learning experience, Todd explains, that led to a different experience in bringing The Last Sunrise to screen.
“I was basically thrown onto a movie set producing film without any experience,” she tells THR. “So I feel like I learned to trust my gut for sure. I also just realized the people that are making these high-level decisions in a lot of cases, like with the After series, were not the target audience. They don’t have any idea about the target audience, which is why I am having such a great time working with Amazon, who does understand readers, and they’re really leaning into adaptations.”
She adds, “Even though I felt imposter syndrome in the beginning, I was like, wait, I can also be these people that are making these choices. Once they let me in the room, I was like I’m not leaving. So here we are.”
In addition to collaborating on the adaptations of her own books, Todd has also helped adapt another bestseller from Colleen Hoover, serving as producer for Regretting You. “That was really fun because it wasn’t my own content. She’s very easy to work with, and very much was just like, ‘I trust you. Just do your thing.’ So that was really fun because I didn’t have the pressure of what the fan base was.”
In 2017, Todd founded the entertainment company Frayed Pages Media to produce innovative and creative work across film, television and publishing.
Before The Last Sunrise released, it was reported that Amazon MGM is eyeing a Last Sunrise sequel with Todd to pen a book trilogy. The film notably ends on a cliffhanger.
“I can’t really confirm nor deny, especially while I’m at Amazon in this room. But I can say that I am very excited at the idea of exploring their future and maybe even exploring more of the parents and their story. So I’m just excited for what could be,” Todd says of the story continuing.
Reficco and Lindez also reiterate that they knew nothing about a potential sequel. Still, should they return, they would like to see the relationship their characters form continue to grow stronger.
“I think they’ve built enough of a connection that it can probably withstand much more than what they imagine,” Reficco says.
Though they quip about the past love between their characters’ parents, Reficco adds, “Hopefully, their parents don’t date because that’d be kind of crazy. That would make for a crazy Christmas!”
The Last Sunrise is available on Prime Video.
English (US) ·