<P> On September 27, it was reported that Warner Bros. was in final talks with Michael Hoffman to direct the film, Will Fetters was set to rewrite the screenplay, marking his second adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, and Denise Di Novi was set to produce the film, along with Sparks and Sparks' agent Theresa Park as co-producers, marking Di Novi's fifth film collaboration with Sparks, Sparks' second time producing a film adaptation of one of his novels and Park's production debut . On July 25, 2013, Relativity Media acquired the distribution rights from Warner Bros., marking the studio's third film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel . On October 22, Michelle Monaghan was cast to play the female lead Amanda Collier, and Ryan Kavanaugh was to co-produce the film . On October 24, the studio set the film for an October 17, 2014 release . </P> <P> On January 9, 2014, the studio offered James Marsden from the 2004 adaptation of Sparks' 1996 novel The Notebook to play the male lead Dawson Cole, replacing Paul Walker after his death . On January 28, Liana Liberato joined the film's cast as the younger version of Monaghan's character, Amanda Collier . On February 12, Luke Bracey was added to the cast to play the younger version of Marsden's character, Dawson Cole . On March 12, Sebastian Arcelus and Gerald McRaney joined the cast of the film . Arcelus played Frank Reynolds, Amanda's husband and father of her children, while McRaney played Tuck, a widower who takes in young Dawson and becomes a friend and father - figure to him . On March 25, Jon Tenney was added to the cast to play Harvey Collier, the father of Amanda . </P> <P> Principal photography began on March 6, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana for a 42 - day shoot . On April 30 and May 1 the filming took place in the downtown Covington area . Also filming took place in parts of Pearl River, Louisiana . </P> <P> On June 27, 2014, it was announced that composer Aaron Zigman would be scoring the music for the film . </P>

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