Yet another Nicholas Sparks’ novel is getting the big screen treatment.

Safe Haven, the author’s 8th literary work (guy penned The Notebook and Dear John to name a few), comes out appropriately, and obviously, on Valentine’s Day. Yours truly yapped with Sparks, who for the first time serves as producer on a flick, and the two leads Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough. We discussed all the usual things you have to do on these press/promo tours, but when dissecting what some may describe as a few trivial items, the trio candidly elaborated on how much effort goes into preparing for the rigors of getting on the set.

And in keeping with the theme of more-or-less transparency, below one can listen to the full audio of our casual chat – where every now and then it may sound as if our phone line crossed with a person speaking tribal dialect, and, you can hear my this guy fumble through a sentence at the 10 minute mark when talking to the striking Julianne Hough; which plays off what Duhamel and I were talking about just prior.

LISTEN TO SAFE HAVEN INTERVIEW