John Green's novel 'Looking for Alaska' is all set to be adapted into a limited TV series for Hulu by Josh Schwartz
John Green's novel, Looking for Alaska, is all set to make a television debut almost 13 years after it was published. American streaming network, Hulu, has been given the go-ahead for a limited series with eight episodes to be adapted from the novel and to be helmed by showrunner, Josh Schwartz, of The O.C. fame.
The adaptation will be produced by Paramount TV and the production company that is owned by Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, Fake Empire.
The pilot for the project has already been written by Schwartz and he will also be the executive producer and showrunner of the adaptation. Savage is slated to executive produce with Green, Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters, and Temple Hill's Marty Hill. Lis Rowinski of Fake Empire will be co-executive producing the limited series alongside everybody else.
Schwartz, who is best known for being the producer of the hit TV show, The O.C., has been actively trying for years now to adapt Green's book. In 2005, the rights for the adaptation of the novel was bought by Paramount Pictures and Schwartz was going to write the screenplay for the film adaptation but the project was canned.
Green's other novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was adapted into a film and it enjoyed quite a bit of success with audiences worldwide. The adaptation for Looking for Alaska was immediately back on the table again and now Temple Hill is on board to produce as well. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have been signed up to write the screenplay for the film.
The plot of Looking for Alaska basically revolves around Miles "Pudge" Halter who is fed up with the safe life he has lived at home so far. He has never had anything spectacular happen to him and is a little too obsessed with famous last words.
Specifically, he is obsessed with poet François Rabelais' last words: "I go to seek a Great Perhaps". Deciding that he wants to find his own "Great Perhaps", he moves to Culver Creek Boarding School where his life immediately gets turned upside down after he meets Alaska Young who stays down the hall from his dorm room. Young is beautiful, sexy, witty, funny, and a complete screw-up in her own right. She and Pudge get drawn to each other immediately and after a series of events where he looks like he has found his Great Perhaps, everything changes once again.
Fake Empire's Schwartz and Savage are already working with Hulu on Marvel's Runaways series which was recently given the green light for a season two.
John Green's novel is the latest in the line of book adaptations that Hulu has been interested in making after the success of the adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 book, The Handmaid's Tale. The streaming site has given the go-ahead for a Catch-22 series that has George Clooney, Christopher Abbott, and Kyle Chandler set to star in it. The adaptation of Celeste Ng's novel Little Fires Everywhere starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington is also slated for a series to be released soon.