The team behind the latest box office hit It Ends With Us were set a tricky task: transform a hugely popular yet controversial novel about domestic violence into a big-screen romance. Already hard enough, but before the film was even released, behind-the-scenes tension involving the actors, producers and director threatened to derail the entire project. A number of confusing and occasionally bizarre incidents throughout the film’s press tour have fuelled speculation over a rift within the cast, with leading lady Blake Lively ( Gossip Girl ) on one side and director and leading man Justin Baldoni ( Jane the Virgin ) on the other.
Stars of It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, are rumoured to be feuding. What could this mean for an already controversial film? Credit: Sony Pictures via AP What that means is It Ends With Us has joined 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling as a movie now swallowed up by the rumour mill and off-screen drama. The film is based on Colleen Hoover’s wildly popular romance novel, which was published in 2016 and sent viral by TikTokers during the pandemic.
Loosely inspired by Hoover’s parents’ relationship, it follows florist Lily Bloom (Lively) who is swept up in a whirlwind romance with neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni). The relationship eventually turns violent, mirroring some of Lily’s previous experiences of abuse. Meanwhile, she reconnects with an old lover.
To date, about 6.9 million copies of the book (physical and digital) have been sol.