'Looking For Alaska' Movie Gets A Director; Does John Green Approve?

Rebecca Thomas is about to find out how enthusiastic John Green’s readers are. She’ll direct the upcoming film adaptation of Green’s “Looking for Alaska.”

“Looking for Alaska” follows the story of a boy named Miles as he transfers to a private school. He meets a mysterious girl named Alaska who changes his perspective. Actors have not been cast in the roles yet. Green's fans have been waiting for his novel to hit the big screen since it came out in 2005.

Thomas has a small resume, according to IMDb. She has directed a couple of shorts and one full-length film called “Electrick Children.” That doesn’t seem to bother Green, though. He took to social media to tell his fans how much he approved of Thomas.

After tweeting about the announcement, Green also wrote a Tumblr post about the film adaptation. He noted that at times he wished Paramount didn’t have the option to make the movie. “To be honest, a lot of times I’ve wished I could get the rights back to prevent there from ever being a movie,” Green wrote, “because the story is so personal and I know it’s also an important story to lots of readers, and I don’t want to mess up their relationship with the book or its characters.”

As previously reported, Paramount snagged the rights to “Looking for Alaska” shortly after it was published 10 years ago. “The O.C.” executive producer Josh Schwartz wrote a screenplay. “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,” Green wrote on his website.

However, Paramount changed their minds after seeing the success of “The Fault in Our Stars” and the hype around “Paper Towns,” due in theaters July 24. Green reports that he is now thrilled that the adaptation of his debut novel is finally going through, and he knows his story is in good hands with Thomas.

“Becca gets Alaska–she wrote me this letter that just made it clear to me that she gets it way deep down, and if you’ve seen her movie ‘Electrick Children’ you’ll know she has a really cool visual imagination,” the author explained on Tumblr. “I am not by nature optimistic, but I think it could be a really great movie. So yay for Becca!!!”

Green was already familiar with some of the other names working behind the camera on “Looking for Alaska.” Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen worked on both “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Paper Towns.”

“Looking for Alaska” will be Green’s third novel to hit the big screen, but there are already plans for a fourth. According to Deadline, Green’s holiday-themed book “Let it Snow,” written with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, was optioned by Universal.

“Looking for Alaska” does not have a release date.