- - Katie Couric Media and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. Pricing and availability subject to change.How the Screenwriter of "People We Meet on Vacation" Brings Beloved Rom-Coms to Life

Sara Levine January 13, 2026 at 1:25 AM

0

How the Screenwriter of "People We Meet on Vacation" Brings Beloved Rom-Coms to Life

On a romance roll? Take a break from your Heated Rivalry TikTok hole to press play on the other love story taking streaming by storm: Yep, we're talking about People We Meet on Vacation. The movie adaptation of Emily Henry's bestselling novel was released last week and quickly shot up to number one on Netflix. Fervent fans are flooding social media with discussion of the story's book-to-screen journey — what changed, what didn't, what worked.

So what does it actually take to bring a beloved book to life? We asked Yulin Kuang, one of the screenwriters of People We Meet on Vacation — and author of the acclaimed novel How to End a Love Story — about writing the buzzy Netflix movie and why we just can't shake a good love story.

Katie Couric Media: What factors do you consider when adapting a novel to film?

Yulin Kuang: So many! How much I loved the novel, for starters. If the answer is anything less than “I was consumed by it,” then it’s probably not the project for me. I also think about the movie I saw in my head while reading, and I’ll jot down the sequences that jump out in my memory immediately after I’ve finished the book.

You're also the adapting writer/director of Henry’s Beach Read feature film for 20th Century Studios. What's it like to adapt such beloved rom-coms? Do you worry about the fans' response to changes or cuts?

I care deeply about how fans receive the finished work, because I'm also a fan of the book. But over the course of my work in adaptation, I’ve learned that the task of good adaptation isn’t to be 100 percent faithful to the source material, but to create something that stands on its own and hopefully draws new audiences to the book. Everyone on Team People We Meet on Vacation — from our director Brett Haley to me and my co-writers Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo to our producers and our wonderful cast — took this project on lovingly and with so much care, and I hope the end result is one that satisfies the readers and also brings new fans to the book.

Is there a scene or moment in People We Meet on Vacation you're most excited to see play out on-screen?

The balcony scene, I love a kissing in the rain moment!

When you write your own novels, are you thinking about how they could translate to the screen?

I wrote my novel, How to End a Love Story, as an exercise in seeing what movie I could direct in the reader’s mind, without having to worry about the realities of production budgets, studio approvals, and filming tax credits. It was incredibly creatively freeing to write that way — after a decade of projects that would often die on the development vine, I’d started to restrict my creative vision in anticipation of those grim realities.

What are some of your favorite rom-com books right now?

Recently, I’ve loved reading Sarah MacLean’s These Summer Storms and Kate Clayborn’s upcoming contemporary Beauty & the Beast retelling, The Paris Match. I’m also a fan of Maurene Goo’s adult contemporary debut, One & Only.

Where do you stand on Heated Rivalry?

I loved the cottage as much as everyone else, but the episode that absolutely took my breath away was the penultimate one. The entire sequence at the end, when (spoiler alert) Ilya calls Shane from Russia and speaks to him honestly about his frustrations at home and the things he wants but can’t bring himself to reach for, and the way he finally declares his love for the first time in this language that Shane can’t understand — I’m getting goosebumps just recalling it. I know it’s a TV show, but they should give Connor Storrie an Oscar for that performance.

What do you think is driving the huge interest in romance and romantasy in the past year or so?

To be clear, I think there has always been a huge interest in romance. It’s one of the most timeless themes in art, one we return to again and again, and the proof is in every art museum you walk into. If we look at the book sales of the romance genre, it’s one that’s been labeled recession-proof by publishing because people are always looking for escapism. But even labeling it as escapism feels reductive to me, because I’ve found so many phenomenal romances that feel so honest and unafraid of grim reality.

I feel what’s actually driving the surge is a byproduct of fandom moving into modern online spaces. This shift from old school fandom has given a highly visible outlet to the audiences that have always been there. It’s become easier to find other people who are excited and ready to obsess over the same fictional characters as you. I remember cutting together videos of my favorite BBC historical romances in Windows Movie Maker back in the early 2000s for an audience of maybe 20 other fans. Now you can stumble across a fan edit of Heated Rivalry or Dramione right in your Instagram or TikTok feed and fall down a miles-deep rabbit hole in two swipes.

I just hope the people funding these projects get curious about why the genre inspires such devotion. Attitudes toward romance from the people up at the top have been frustratingly patronizing, in my experience. I’d love to see more people behind the scenes take this genre seriously, because that’s how the good ones get made.

The post How the Screenwriter of "People We Meet on Vacation" Brings Beloved Rom-Coms to Life appeared first on Katie Couric Media.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”