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Madelaine Petsch and Gavin Casalegno are about to set YA fandoms ablaze. The two stars will lead the film adaptation of Chasing Red, the massively popular Wattpad romance by Isabelle Ronin that has racked up an eye-popping 261 million reads. With Amazon already securing rights in multiple international territories and the project pre-sold worldwide, this slow-burn love story is shaping up to be one of the most buzzed-about young adult films in years.
Chasing Red follows a guarded straight-A student who finds herself drawn to a charming college heartthrob despite her resolve.
A New YA Sexy Power Couple Brings Wattpad’s Chasing Red, Second Biggest Hit, to the Screen
Petsch, 31, continues her growing relationship with Amazon Prime Video following projects like Maintenance Required and Hotel for the Holidays. This time, she steps into the role of Veronica, a straight-A student with her guard firmly up. Veronica is determined not to fall for college heartthrob Caleb, played by The Summer I Turned Pretty breakout Gavin Casalegno, 26. Their characters collide during an unexpected encounter that sparks instant chemistry, but Veronica’s painful past makes her wary of becoming another notch in Caleb’s romantic history. When circumstances force her to move into Caleb’s home, the tension between them only deepens, uncovering layers of longing, secrets, and emotional danger.
Chasing Red is being directed by Mackenzie Munro from a screenplay by Lauren Schacher. The project is produced by Greg Silverman and Grant Torre of Stampede Ventures alongside David Madden and Jason Goldberg of Webtoon Productions. The team behind the film carries a strong track record in bringing fan-fueled stories to life, which bodes well for an adaptation that fans have been clamoring for since the original webnovel went viral.
Wattpad’s influence in Hollywood is no small feat. The online storytelling platform has become a breeding ground for book-to-screen hits, most notably Anna Todd’s After franchise, which turned five films into a global box office total of 168 million dollars. With Chasing Red being Wattpad’s second most-read English title, expectations for the film’s emotional stakes and romantic heat are high.
For Petsch, who has shown a growing versatility across romance, thrillers, and holiday fare, Chasing Red marks another step into her leading-lady era with another character-driven role that leans into vulnerability and intensity. Casalegno, meanwhile, brings his rising heartthrob status to a story tailor-made for devoted fanbases.
If the online readership is any indication, this pairing is set to deliver one of the next big YA obsessions. Love, secrets, and betrayal are coming to the screen soon, and fans are already preparing to fall hard.
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