Ready for One Direction, the movie?

MANILA, Philippines - Young superstars Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson make their big-screen debut via TriStar Pictures’ One Direction: This Is Us.

It’s more than just a filmed concert and tour documentary, which offers a chance to get up close and personal with what has been touted as the world’s biggest boy band today. This Is Us was filmed while the guys were taking their world tour to arenas around the globe — from Mexico to Japan to London’s famed O2 arena. It mixes performance footage, candid interviews and behind-the-scenes footage for a unique look into the talent, hard work and mischief that go into being One Direction. The movie also delves into the group’s humble origins, its unprecedented rise to fame and the fan-driven phenomenon that enabled One Direction to conquer the world.

The film is directed by Academy Award-nominee Morgan Spurlock and produced by Simon Cowell, Adam Milano, Spurlock and Ben Winston.

To recall, it was in the summer of 2010, when Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis entered Britain’s biggest talent show The X Factor, as individual contenders. At the boot-camp stage of the competition, X Factor judge Cowell offered the guys the opportunity to stay in the competition, but as a group.

“I saw five solo artists who were five solo stars, but would be stronger in a group, it was that simple,” says Cowell. “I liked each of them individually, and something made me think they would work really well as a group.”

Called One Direction, the group immediately became a sensation. This group of talented and cheeky guys who captured a nation of young girls by not looking and sounding pre-packaged, just exuding talent, friendship and charisma both on- and off-stage.

Says Cowell, “Right from the get-go, if I’d be honest…I was very much of the attitude, ‘I’m not gonna tell you what to do. You can probably tell me what to do,’ you know? ‘You’ve got to sort it out for yourself, ‘cause I think you’re smart enough.’ And that’s always been the way it’s worked with these boys. I had this just amazing confidence in them.”

Fans responded in thousands, flooding social media, waiting for hours outside TV studios and voting the boys through each round of the competition all the way to the grand finals. Though One Direction came in third overall on the show — narrowly missing the record deal awarded to the first prizewinner — the boys knew instinctively that this was not the last the world would see of One Direction.

That instinct to stay together instantly paid off. The band signed to its X Factor mentor Cowell’s record label, Syco Records and quickly got to work recording its debut album while performing across the UK and Ireland on the X Factor Live Tour. A book chronicling the band’s experience on the road — Forever Young — went straight to No. 1 on The Times Bestseller List. The album, meanwhile, was coming together with a stellar team of writers and producers, from Steve Mac (Westlife, Leona Lewis) to Rami Yacoub (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys) and Red One (Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez).

The band’s debut album, Up All Night, released in October 2011, was an instant smash; a feat forecast by the fact that its first single, What Makes You Beautiful, had already become the biggest single pre-order in Sony Music’s history. In the US, the boys sought North American success with a string of appearances and performances that not only turned What Makes You Beautiful into an iTunes hit, but led Up All Night to a feat never before achieved by a British band: Entering the Billboard chart at No. 1 with its debut record. With three MTV Video Music Awards, a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award (for Favorite UK artist) and three MTV Europe Music Awards (including Best New Act and Best UK and Ireland Act), it truly seemed there was no stopping One Direction’s rise to the top.

The band’s sophomore album, Take Me Home, turned 2012 into a banner year for the boys, hitting the top of pre-order charts in 50 countries. The album’s first single, Live While We’re Young, went straight to No. 1. All in all, Take Me Home topped the charts in 37 countries. The Take Me Home tour, which continued into 2013, was a global sellout, taking Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis to Europe, North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

It released Best Song Ever, a track written specifically for the film. The fun and cheeky video for the song (directed by Ben Winston) broke records on VEVO with 12.4 million views in one day, making it the most viewed debut video ever on the platform.

Cowell says, “What I’ve loved about working with the boys is that they haven’t taken anything for granted, and they still appreciate and still are in awe of what’s going on. They’ve survived, and they’ll continue to survive because first of all, they’re smart, and secondly they understand their audience and respect their fans.”

During the tour, though, the notion of a film came together, giving the boys a chance to conquer an entirely different medium. Opening across the Philippines on Aug. 28, One Direction: This Is Us is distributed by Columbia Pictures.