Last night on Twitter, John Green—Internet sensation, Nerdfighter, and YA author—announced that Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley (Stories We Tell, Take This Waltz) will be writing and directing the movie adaptation of his first book, Looking For Alaska.
Although Green became famous outside of YouTube and Twitter when he wrote The Fault In Our Stars, he’s been known to lovers of YA lit since 2005, when he published his first novel, Looking For Alaska. And although Fault is considered his breakthrough novel, with the requisite crossover literary success and a movie, his first four books are just as full of geeky charm and smart teenagers—and, yes, tragedy.
Looking For Alaska was optioned for the big screen soon after its publication, and Polley is well positioned to adapt it, as she is no stranger to telling stories of emotional devastation. Her directorial debut, Away From Her, chronicled a woman’s battle with dementia, while the later Take This Waltz took an unflinching gaze at a crumbling marriage. Without giving away any of the plot, this movie will make you cry just as much as The Fault In Our Stars did.