This year there are two films based on Nicholas Sparks books hitting your local cinema. On Friday (February 4), fans can see Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum fall in love in “Dear John” and, come this March, Miley Cyrus will find love with Liam Hemsworth in “The Last Song.” So, are Seyfried and Tatum feeling a little competitive?

“If ‘The Last Song’ was coming out the same weekend as ‘Dear John,’ we’d have to collaborate on some sort of sabotage mission,” Seyfried joked.

But Tatum notes that there’s no reason for them to worry since the films are opening weeks apart, with “The Last Song” not hitting theaters until March 31. “No, not any more competition than all the rest of his movies coming out,” he said. “I think all his films are very, very separate from one another with one theme: love. We’re not competing for the same weekend.”

With that all cleared up, it seems obvious that fans will love “Dear John” for the same reasons they have flocked to the theaters for other Sparks films: The man knows a lot about love. “Look, he’s got, like, a magic wand when it comes to heartstrings,” Tatum said. “I think he’s a hopeless romantic himself and he just really loves writing about it in really sexy places and really sexy ways. Not to be cheesy or melodramatic — everyone wants to feel loved and that their love is special, and when they read about these once-in-a-lifetime sort of relationships and loves, it’s a great place to go away and escape.”