'Looking For Alaska' Movie: 7 Things To Know About John Green's Next Book Heading To The Big Screen
“The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green is going to see his first book turned into a movie. “Looking For Alaska,” Green’s 2005 debut novel, follows a boy named Miles as he transfers to a private school. That’s where he meets Alaska, a girl who changes everything in his life. “Looking for Alaska” will be Green’s third novel adapted for the big screen. “The Fault in Our Stars” made its way in 2014, while “Paper Towns” is expected to hit theaters on June 5. Since “The Fault in Our Stars” was a major success (topping $300 million at the box office), “Looking for Alaska” is expected to do the same. If you’re not a Green fan (aka. a Nerdfighter), here are a few things you should know before the movie comes out:
1. New movie, same team – “Looking for Alaska” will head to the screen with much the same team that was behind last year’s “The Fault in Our Stars” and June’s “Paper Towns.” Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber will reunite with producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen. The team worked closely with Green throughout the making of “TFIOS” and brought him on as an executive producer for “Paper Towns.”
2. Potential returning cast – With so many people from the creative team behind “TFIOS” and “Paper Towns” returning, it wouldn’t be surprising if some cast members signed on. Nat Wolff played supporting character Isaac in “The Fault in Our Stars” and he signed on to star in “Paper Towns” as Quentin, the leading character. No cast announcements have been made for "Looking for Alaska" yet.
3. The real setting – The private school setting of “Looking for Alaska” was very much inspired by Green’s real high school. He attended Indian Springs School in Alabama and has admitted that, while the story is fictional, the setting was very much influenced by his real life.
4. It was shelved for years – Paramount secured the rights to “Looking for Alaska” long before “The Fault in Our Stars” was even written. Back in 2005, the studio bought the rights and hired “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” executive producer Josh Schwartz to write the screenplay.
“The rights to the 'Looking for Alaska' movie are owned by Paramount, which hired Josh Schwartz to write and direct the film,” Green explained on his website. "Josh wrote an excellent screenplay adaptation of the book, a screenplay which I desperately loved, but there was no enthusiasm for that kind of movie at Paramount."
Apparently, they reconsidered after the success of “TFIOS,” but Schwartz’s screenplay won’t be used. Newstadter and Weber will write a new one, according to Deadline.
5. Awards – “Looking for Alaska” is one of several books Green has written, but it’s the only one with a Michael L. Printz Award. The gold seal “honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit,” according to the American Library Association.
6. Banned – Despite being awarded and hitting several bestseller lists, some people who hated the book. Several schools have banned it. In 2008, Green posted a video to his Vlogbrothers channel to defend putting a sex scene in the book.
“They think that my book is pornographic and that it will cause immoral thoughts and actions in children. … I don’t think there’s a single halfway normal person in the world who would find a single thing in my book in anyway arousing,” Green said. “There is one very frank sex scene. It is awkward, unfun, disastrous and wholly unerotic.”
7. Nerdfighters – Though “The Fault in Our Stars” probably attracted plenty of people who didn’t read the book, Green’s large fan base is also to thank for the movie’s success. His fans are known as Nerdfighters because they consider themselves nerds who fight to make the world a better place, and they’re the ones who pre-ordered tickets and lined up for midnight showings. They will most likely be the first in line for showings of “Paper Towns” and “Looking for Alaska.”
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