Leigh Dunlap, the screenwriter for A Cinderella Story reveals it was not Hilary Duff who was his first choice for the movie 20 years ago.

“I distinctly remember I was on a train, and I had the cover of Rolling Stone magazine that Britney Spears did, the first one she ever did that was sort of controversial because she was so young and it was very sexualized,” Dunlap told TV Insider in an interview.

“I wrote it with her in mind at the time,” he revealed.

But due to the fact that the movie wasn’t made until a few years after Spears’ cover in question, the one in 1991, Dunlap had to find someone else for the lead role.

“By the time we got years down the road, she had moved on to becoming a massive star, and it didn’t matter anymore,” Dunlap said of Spears, 42.

However, Duff, 36, proved herself to be the right one for the character of modern-day Cinderella Samantha “Sam” Montgomery, embracing the role for her first breakout after the wrap up of her Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire.

“We got the right girl in the end,” Dunlap admitted.