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Looking for Alaska film adaptation in development (2007)

project history · status: completed · last event: outcome (2019-11-01)

The long effort to adapt John's first novel, Looking for Alaska: the film rights, sold in 2005, went through scripts, screenwriters and a director before the film was cancelled at the last minute. The book was instead adapted as a Hulu limited series, which came out in October 2019 to good reviews.

Parts: John: Looking for Alaska may never be made into a movie (2016)

Told alongside: Looking for Alaska limited series on Hulu (2018) · John: the Looking for Alaska Hulu series will really happen this time (2018) · John sells the Looking for Alaska film rights for three times his salary, paying for his and Sarah's move to New York (2005)

About: Looking for Alaska (film), Looking for Alaska (novel), Looking for Alaska (miniseries), Hulu

date event what video
2007-05-16 milestone John has read the screenplay of the Looking for Alaska movie, which Hollywood now calls Famous Last Words. Brotherhood 2.0: May 16: Beating the EBO into the ground 00:00:10
2007-12-10 milestone John says his first novel, Looking for Alaska, has been in movie development for about a year and a half and is still in development. (hedged) Dec. 10: MY BOOK IS GONNA BE A MOVIE!!! (someday) 00:01:12
2015-03-10 milestone John announces that Scott Neustadter and Mike Weber, who wrote The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, will write the Looking for Alaska script. Travel Tips (and Paper Towns Movie Updates) 00:01:09
2015-06-30 milestone John announces that Weber and Neustadter have written a Looking for Alaska script and Becca Thomas has been hired to direct, so the film will probably happen. Some News 00:02:58
2016-01-19 looked back John says he sold the Looking for Alaska film rights more than ten years ago, has tried many times to buy them back, the studio's attempts have always fallen apart, and he is not involved in the project in any way. The Looking for Alaska Movie, Davos, and Hufflepuff Shade: It's Question Tuesday 00:02:02
2018-05-11 paused Hank says John's first book, published two years before John proposed making video blogs on YouTube, kept doing better and, now 13 years old, is becoming an eight-episode Hulu miniseries. Looking for Alaska Movie (BUT BETTER) and YouTuber Things 00:00:01
2018-08-14 milestone John says Looking for Alaska is to be adapted into a Hulu limited series; it's still happening, he has read the great first-episode script, and that's all he knows. Question Tuesday: Secrets & Primes 00:00:29
2018-10-31 looked back John recounts the film's history: rights sold forever in 2005, Josh Schwartz's script changed by the studio, the film dead until 2014, then revived and cancelled at the last minute. The Looking for Alaska Thing 00:02:26
2019-10-08 looked back In the 14 years since the book came out, John has made many public announcements of a movie or TV show that then fell through, which is often the way of Hollywood. Looking for Alaska (...with Alaska) 00:00:00
2019-10-15 milestone John says the Looking for Alaska show comes out on Friday or Saturday and its reviews so far have been really good. I'm Having a Lot of Feelings 00:00:29
2019-11-01 outcome John says the TV adaptation of Looking for Alaska has just come out and is really wonderful; per Rotten Tomatoes it is the freshest adaptation of his work. On Looking Up to Your Little Brother 00:01:41

What is said about it

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