In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, news broke that Shailene Woodley—who was cast as Tris in the upcoming Divergent movie—was also cast as Hazel in the upcoming movie of The Fault in our Stars.
In case you’ve been living under an even bigger rock and don’t know anything about The Fault in our Stars, let me enlighten you…
John Green (the author of the book) burst onto the YA scene when he won the 2006 Printz award for his debut, Looking for Alaska. (And for those who need even more info, the Printz award is the Newberry for YA books). Until his latest novel, he had more of a growing cult following than blatant commercial popularity, but he built a bigger fan base with each of his books. And then The Fault in our Stars came out last year.
The story is narrated by Hazel Grace Lancaster, who has stage IV cancer. A miracle drug has held off her death—for now—but life is far from normal. She’s on an oxygen tank. Her social life consists of her parents, books…and a cancer support group, where she unexpectedly finds a boyfriend, Augustus Waters.
I’ll leave the summary there, because I don’t like when people spoil too much of the plotline for me. But let me warn you, if you choose to read the book, I wouldn’t take it to the beach or finish it on the subway. I cried buckets. (And if you’re complaining that the previous paragraph was a spoiler, c’mon, it’s a cancer book!)
The book has taken off, becoming a NY Times Bestseller, winning the Goodreads Choice Award, getting a zillion starred reviews, and, of course, gaining a fan base of both normal people and crazies (like the woman who carried a copy of the book instead of a bouquet at her wedding). And since Hollywood has figured out that turning books into movies seems to bring in more money for them than just about anything else, the book was optioned.
According to interviews so far, it doesn’t look like Hollywood is going to screw this one up, either. John Green said he’s looked at every draft of the script and loves the director, Josh Boone. Boone raved about Woodley’s audition, which says a lot since he screened 250 actresses.
Now the big question on everyone’s mind is: which actor is going to play Augustus Waters? And when I went looking, I realized my age is starting to show. Because I didn’t know a single name on the list of actors they listed in the Up&Comers article.
Bekah’s note: Both Dave Franco AND Nicholas Hoult (Both in Warm bodies!) are on that list of names to play Augustus! There’s like FOUR people making the YA movie circuit rounds these days, huh?
