John sells the Looking for Alaska film rights for three times his salary, paying for his and Sarah's move to New York (2005)

story · status: told 2× · last event: told (2018-10-31)

John told in 2018 how, in a single day, he was paid three times his annual salary for the movie rights to Looking for Alaska, which let him and Sarah move to New York and bought him time to write.

Origin known from later mentions

2005 in the title is when this began; it first appears in the videos read here in 2015, so the earlier part is known only from what is said later.

Told alongside: Looking for Alaska film adaptation in development (2007) · John: Looking for Alaska may never be made into a movie (2016)

About: Looking for Alaska (novel), Looking for Alaska (film), Hollywood, New York City

date	event	what	video
2015-06-30	told	The money from selling the rights let John and Sarah move to New York so Sarah could go to graduate school toward becoming a curator, so John cannot really regret the sale.	Some News 00:02:39
2018-10-31	told	John says Hollywood suddenly took interest: in one day he was paid three times his annual salary for the movie rights, which let them move to New York and bought him time to write.	The Looking for Alaska Thing 00:01:10

What is said about it

11 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).

2015-06-30 · Some News — John: More than ten years ago John sold the film rights to his first novel, Looking for Alaska, and he has often tried to get them back since. — 00:02:24
2018-10-31 · The Looking for Alaska Thing — John says he and Sarah, dating almost a year, got engaged that summer on the day she learned she would attend graduate school in New York City; he had thanked 'the lovely Sarah Urist' in the book. — 00:00:20
2018-10-31 · The Looking for Alaska Thing — John says it was unclear how they could afford two years in New York: the book was selling okay, but not quit-your-job okay. (playful) — 00:00:33
2015-06-30 · Some News — announcement: John: Weber and Neustadter, screenwriters of the TFIOS and Paper Towns films, have written a Looking for Alaska script, and Becca Thomas, director of Electric Children, has been hired to direct, so the film will probably happen. (hedged) — 00:02:58
2015-06-30 · Some News — John: The film might still fall apart, but John hopes not, because he really likes Becca Thomas and thinks she understands the book completely. (hedged) — 00:03:12
2015-06-30 · Some News — John says he is now excited about the prospect of a Looking for Alaska movie, words he never thought he would say. — 00:03:19
2015-06-30 · Some News — John says it is scary, for him too, when a book is turned into a movie, but also exciting, and hopes viewers are excited for both films. — 00:03:25
2018-10-31 · The Looking for Alaska Thing — John says the deal had no reversion clause, so the studio would own the rights forever, and he understood what he was doing. — 00:01:26
2018-10-31 · The Looking for Alaska Thing — John says Josh Schwartz, who makes TV with Stephanie Savage, was first attached to write the screenplay and wrote an excellent script, but the studio wanted changes, mostly to make it less like the book. — 00:01:38
2018-10-31 · The Looking for Alaska Thing — John says it is easy to paint Hollywood producers and executives as cartoon villains, and some are, but it is really hard to get any movie made, let alone a good one. (hedged) — 00:01:50
2018-10-31 · The Looking for Alaska Thing — John says no one would fund it, so the Alaska movie was dead until 2014, when The Fault in Our Stars became a very successful movie. — 00:02:05