Fourteen years ago, John Green’s very first novel Looking For Alaska graced the bookshelves and landed him on the map of YA literature. Ever since then, we have been blessed with Paper Towns, The Fault In Our Stars, and most recently Turtles All The Way Down, the former two of which were adapted into beloved teen films!
In fact, the title of “first novel” under Green would have been given to The Fault In Our Stars had his vision for TFIOS been fleshed out enough at the time to be fully realized, written, and published seven years earlier than its eventual 2012 publication date. So, because of TFIOS‘s delay, Green’s official “first novel” was Looking For Alaska!
Image Via Book Depository
Published by Dutton Juvenile in 2005, Looking For Alaska tells the coming-of-age story of Miles “Pudge” Halter, who upon arriving at a boarding school joins a group of friends and falls in love with the novel’s titular character Alaska Young, but a sudden tragedy has Pudge and his friends question everything they thought were certain in life. While the novel won the Michael L. Printz Award a year after publication, it became one of the most challenged books in 2015 because of profanity and sexually explicit scenes.
There have been talks over the years of a film adaptation for Green’s special book, which was previously acquired by Paramount and underwent several scripts potentially fit for the big screen, but nothing seemed to stick. Series executive producer Josh Schwartz had been following the adaptation process and never once gave up hope ever since he received the story’s manuscript from an “unknown author” and fell in love upon reading it!
However, an official announcement was made in 2018 that Hulu will be adapting the novel into a limited series, comprising only eight episodes and starring Charlie Plummer and Kristine Froseth as Pudge and Alaska, respectively.
The news of a Hulu adaptation itself would send any John Green fan up to Cloud Nine – even to the clouds on the cover of The Fault In Our Stars, the important piece to come out of this is the fact that, according to Green, the series will be “incredibly faithful” to the book. Given that it’s a television format, there will be more than enough time to focus on, as well as delve even deeper, into Alaska’s character.
However, the series will differ from the novel with making Alaska more integral to the story rather than just part of the mystery, such as having the addition of more private moments, especially between Pudge and her.
As announced at the Looking For Alaska BookCon 2019 panel, the eight episodes will be on Hulu on October 18, 2019.
So watch out! If you thought The Fault In Our Stars was a tearjerker, just wait for the newest John Green adaptation…
Featured Image via Geekiary