
Check out our first look at Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth walking down the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of their new film,
The Last Song. Doesn't Miley look gorgeous in her leather dress? She and Liam make a beautiful couple. Set and shot primarily in Tybee Island, Georgia, nearby Savannah also served as a movie location for
The Last Song. Sparks originally envisioned the story unfolding in North Carolina (as do many of his stories), and Disney Pictures originally planned to make the movie there. Several states engaged in an incentives “bidding war” for the production, however, and Georgia ultimately triumphed.
When the location manager found it difficult to recreate Tybee Island to look like North Carolina, the scriptwriters were persuaded to change the story’s setting. Sparks’ novel of the same name – which, interestingly, was actually finished after the screenplay – remains set in North Carolina.
The Last Song's storyline centers on Veronica “Ronnie” Miller (Cyrus), a 17-year-old former prodigy pianist who was angered by her parents’ divorce and abandoned her musical studies as a result. Frustrated, Ronnie’s mother (Preston) sends the teen to summer with her father (Kinnear), a former concert pianist and Julliard School professor who moved to laid-back Georgia after the divorce. Initially, Ronnie is miserable in the sleepy community and generally hostile toward everyone she encounters, including the handsome Will Blakelee (Hemsworth). As the summer unfolds, a relationship with Will develops and helps her reconnect with her father and, ultimately, with her art.
Cyrus does not sing in the film (although one of her songs is incorporated in the soundtrack), but she learned to play classical piano for the part. She also received training to lose her Southern accent since it wouldn’t fit with the New York-born-and-raised Ronnie characterization. The young star told MTV last September:
I changed a lot when I was in Tybee Island. I feel like art really does imitate life. So just showing this movie, I feel like I'm really showing a part of my growth as a person as well. So I'm really excited for people to see it, just because of what it means to me, personally."
When asked earlier this month at the Academy Awards, the 17-year-old Cyrus confirmed she is dating her 19-year-old co-star, Liam Hemsworth, and coyly answered, “maybe” when asked if she was in love.