Amid ongoing controversy over in vitro fertilization (IVF), best-selling novelist Karen Kingsbury is releasing her first feature film that explores the reproductive alternative’s upside.
“Someone Like You” is about twins who were separated during their parents’ IVF procedure. One of the siblings, London Quinn, passes away tragically while the surviving twin, Andi Allen, is left to grapple with discovering she was secretly adopted as an embryo by another family.
“It’s a romance that has beautiful themes of redemption, love, loss and that comes from a Christian worldview, which is just so great to see people view that as the mainstream,” Ms. Kingsbury told The Epoch Times.
Sarah Fisher portrayed the twins as one having blond hair and the other brown.
Ricki Maslar in Los Angeles was hired to cast the film while Tyler Russell directed.
“We auditioned 3,000 different young women to play the twins, and Sarah Fisher stood out,” Ms. Kingsbury said. “The two characters are twins, but it was important that they look very different, and Sarah did a phenomenal job.”
The catalyst is an architect named Dawson Gage, played by Jake Allyn, who tries to help the surviving twin navigate her feelings of anger because her parents never revealed she was once part of a pair of IVF embryos. Prior to meeting Andi, Dawson had been best friends with her deceased twin sibling, London.
“He loses his best friend, the girl he was always in love with, but they were never more than friends. And in his quest to figure out his grief, he learns there was an extra embryo, and maybe there’s a brother or sister out there,” Ms. Kingsbury said in an interview with The Epoch Times.
“He wants to meet that person if that person exists, and he’s led to Andi Allen, who looks just like his best friend whom he’s lost,” she added.
Prior to becoming a novelist, Ms. Kingsbury was a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and a reporter at the Los Angeles Daily News. After covering a murder story, she wrote her first book about it called “Missy’s Murder.” Since then, she has become a No. 1 New York Times and USA Today best-selling novelist. Her last 12 published books all topped the bestseller lists.
The movie is being released during a time when the future of the reproductive procedure is in question after the Alabama Supreme Court decided that an IVF-frozen embryo is a fetus. Because unused embryos are often discarded, the court ruling leaves reproductive fertilization centers at risk for litigation.
“This is the story of twins separated in the petri dish,” Ms. Kingsbury said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a movie that’s been done about it.”
Embryo adoption is a special interest of Ms. Kingsbury, and her One Chance Foundation has given several grants to facilitate embryo adoptions.
As a result, some of the proceeds from “Someone Like You” ticket sales will benefit the nonprofit.
The feature film is based on Ms. Kingsbury’s popular novel of the same name and opens in some 2,000 theatres nationwide through Fathom on April 2, 2024.
Fathom, the ninth-largest North American movie theatre distributor, offers faith-based and inspirational film content. Fathom also has a global presence, distributing content internationally to more than 45 countries.
“Fathom is doing mainstream distribution now, and we’ve been working with them since the beginning,” Ms. Kingsbury said. “They were excited because of my readership and the following I have that we would be able to do a successful release.”
More than 25 million copies of Ms. Kingsbury’s award-winning books are in circulation.
Ms. Kingsbury and her husband, Donald Russell, invested $2 million of their own money to produce “Someone Like You” without the assistance of investors or a studio.
“We decided the movie has so much hope that if someone can’t afford a ticket, they can go to our website and get a ticket for free,” she said. “You can also buy a ticket for a stranger if you feel this world needs hope like this.”
Other actors in the film include Lynn Collins, who plays Louise Quinn; Scott Reeves, who portrays Larry Quinn; Robyn Lively, who plays Dr. Jenny Allen; Bart Johnson, who portrays Dr. Jim Allen; Brandon Hirsch, who plays Carl Smith; and Austin Robert Russell, who portrays Matt Bryan.
“Austin Robert Russell does a phenomenal job as the boyfriend who doesn’t get the girl, but he plays an important role anyway because he voices some of our concerns,” Ms. Kingsbury said.
“We had Bart Johnson and Robin Lively, who are married in real life, playing the doctor couple, and they were awesome. We were surrounded by talent.”
