Vanessa and Laura Marano Tell Us Why They Fought To Make Their Darkest Project Yet

By Vanessa and Laura Marano


Twelve years back, Alyson Noël wrote Saving Zoë — a book that included the social staples of that time: VHS tapes, emoji-less text messages, and MySpace. Remember MySpace? In 2007, it was what every teen was talking about; and although, for several teens today, the site is more of a legend than a distant memory. With all these seemingly archaic cultural characteristics, one would think the story noticed in Saving Zoë would feel dated and far away. On the contrary, it is more relevant right now than ever before. That’s the most striking segment of our journey with this incredible book-turned-movie: Over a decade later, Saving Zoë isn’t just culturally suitable — it’s needed.


At its core, Saving Zoë is about grief. It is a heart-wrenching love story between two sisters, one dead and one living in the other’s shadow. We were 11 and 14 once we first read it (our mother, Ellen Marano, was slightly older however who really cares about age?). We cried, we laughed, although more importantly, we turned inward and reflected on ourselves. Naturally, as two sisters reading the book, hit residence and it also hit hard; yet, there was another aspect of the story that haunted us long soon after we finished reading.


The story discusses a subject that we were neither wise about nor even aware of; a subject that a lot of people experience, nevertheless might not directly have the ability to put a name to it; a subject called online sexual exploitation.


Saving Zoë follows Echo, a freshman attempting to navigate her first year of high school while still dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy. Zoë, her older sister, was murdered each year before our story begins — and as it turns out, there’s more to Zoë’s death than meets a persons vision. Immediately after Echo discovers her sister’s diary, she finds herself sucked into a global of darkness she never knew existed. Multiple characters find themselves involved in circumstances where, without their consent, someone captured videos and photos of those in sexually compromising situations and used those images against them. And as we moved forward with optioning the book, we had two challenges: one, representing this provide appropriately and accurately, and two, finding a way to convince people to let's put this distribute on-screen.


Noël showed adolescence through a darker lens than most of the other YA novels we had read. Her teens were lonely and introverted, with the majority overwhelmingly feeling that the adults in their lives didn't have the capability to support them. It was the loneliness and desperation masqueraded as boredom that pushed Zoë into situations that ultimately led to her murder. Murder, illegal drugs, online sexual exploitation — these were not the subjects that most studios and production firms had in mind once talking about YA. We were told time immediately after time that the story was also dark for teens to relate to, that teens, especially young women, were looking for lighter, more digestible content. As young teen women, we heavily disagreed. That motivated us to just keep going.


The most frustrating piece of this particular process was not necessarily being told what our age order wanted by people who were most definitely not in our age sort yet that did irk us); it was that we felt this story could begin a conversation most teenagers needed to have, a conversation that would consist of safe online etiquette and even revelations from survivors who hadn’t totally come to terms with their experiences and the effects. Every survivor of online sexual exploitation has a different story, and thus several of those involved perpetrators they knew or thought they knew. We were (and still are) convinced that this story could not only educate people about a provide that is hardly talked, yet it can also prevent further victims, and hopefully begin a much-needed conversation between governments and tech agencies. The more we spoken about this allocate, the more enthusiastic we became. So, why was each person else so scared to talk about it?


It didn't matter to us. We just kept moving forward. We got our director Jeff Hunt onboard because of how horrified he was from the YA novel, which he had read as if it were a thriller. He got our screenwriters, LeeAnne and Brian Adams, to sign on soon after they read the book and shared similar sentiments. We spent almost two years workshopping the script, where each person put plenty a notable amount of their time and energy knowing at that point, we were all working for free (LeeAnne and Brian especially). We knew it was going to be told in a mature way, nevertheless we still wanted young people watching to relate to it and feel seen. We knew it was dark, although we also knew that wouldn’t scare our peers away. 2017 rolled around, and sure enough, our script was willing to send out.


In 2017, something was changing airborne, especially in the YA space. Teens didn’t just watch darker content — they craved it. Studios started taking note, and for the opening time, we noticed countless people interested in making our movie. We met with Michael Schreiber, president of the corporation Studio71, and his passion for our project blew us away. We had been pitching the movie for 10 years, and all of a sudden, we had a meeting in April and went into production in July. For those who don’t know this world, let's assure you, that is unbelievably fast.


The fast pace of production didn't stop there. We shot the film in 15 days, edited it in three weeks, and mixed it for a short seven days. It was hectic, however we were thrilled. Soon after 10 long years we had finally gotten the film produced, and we were finally going to get the chance to share the story that we were so enthusiastic about with the world.


Then, we faced the challenge of finding a distributor. Like a damaged record, we kept hearing time and time again about how there was no place in the YA space for a film like this. Yes, it was well done. Yes, it was a gripping story. Yes, it was a subject that needed light to be trim upon it. Nevertheless teen women want fluff, people instructed us, and Saving Zoë was anything yet fluff. We were back to square one.


It wasn't up until Blue Fox Entertainment saw the film that everything changed. One of the studio executives noticed himself discussing the project with his niece, and right away she recounted reading Saving Zoë as a teenager. Her passion for the book echoed our sentiments exactly. She instructed her uncle just how special and powerful the story was to her. And just like that, immediately after more than a decade of being told what young ladies hope to watch, a young woman's belief in the project is the reason it finally debuted in theaters and on VOD on July 12th.


Trafficking for sexual exploitation is estimated to be a 99 billion dollar industry worldwide. Online sexual exploitation is a large fragment of that number. Equality Right now, a human rights corporation with whom we partnered on the film, has been fighting to change laws and spread awareness about this subject for years. This includes bringing with each other tech firms, governments, civil society, and survivors to find survivor-centered solutions to the supply problem of online sexual exploitation. Any time we originally showed Saving Zoë to Equality Right now, their excitement for the project transcended our greatest hopes. They thought in the project as much as we did. Whenever we asked why, they mentioned it was due to the audience it was made for: young girls. Young girls have the power to change the world. Young ladies can use their voices to speak up about subjects that are essential to them, no matter how tough it can seem. Females, of all ages, make up 94% of the victims of sexual exploitation.


This is a topic that affects us, and no wants to talk about it. That only motivates us to try and talk about it more. We hope that Saving Zoë will motivate others to do the same. Because at the end of the day, we don't just want stories that are light, fluffy, and easy to digest. We want stories that matter — that speak about subjects that impact our lives.


Twelve years prior, Alyson Noël wrote a book that changed our lives. It showed us just how strong young females can be. We hope our film moves you the same way her book moved us all those years ago.