If you’re in the market for some tearjerking YA adventures, then Hulu’s announcement that the lead roles for its adaptation of John Green’s Looking For Alaska have been cast will likely be music to your ears. Green, a reliable purveyor of wildly popular, angsty teen stories, like The Fault In Our Stars, Paper Towns, and the 2017 novel, Turtles All the Way Down, will finally see his debut novel adapted, albeit in a way that’s much different from his previous efforts. Rather than a feature film set as counter programming against the latest superhero film, it will become an eight-episode limited series.
The change in venue from theaters from to a streaming service will no doubt have some impact on the way the adaptation is received, as well as how it plays out. With additional time to better accommodate the book’s characters, subplots, and more granular details, it stands to reason that a limited series would be the ideal place for authors to see their work come to life. Sure, there’s the obvious downside of missing out on the massive potential returns at the box office (Fault in Our Stars brought in over $300 million on a $12 million budget), but what’s a couple hundred million dollars compared to seeing your work adapted with runtime to spare on a streaming service?
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As announced by Hulu (and Green) today, Kristine Froseth (Apostle) has been cast as Alaska Young and Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete, All the Money in the World) will star as Miles Halter. For those of you unfamiliar with with story of Alaska and Miles, you can check out a brief synopsis of the series below:
“The series is based on the John Green novel of the same name. It is told through the eyes of teenager Miles "Pudge" Halter, as he enrolls in boarding school to try to gain a deeper perspective on life. He falls in love with a girl, Alaska Young, and after her unexpected death, he and his close friends attempt to uncover the truth behind her death and make sense of it.”
Whether or not Looking For Alaska will do for Froseth and Plummer’s careers what Fault did for Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort remains to be seen, but starring roles in what’s sure to be a high-profile series certainly won’t hurt. Froseth has had roles in two Netflix Original movies this year with Sierra Burgess Is a Loser and Gareth Evans’ bloody and unnerving Apostle. Plummer, meanwhile earned praise for is role in Andrew Haigh’s terrific Lean on Pete (which is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video), and has been seen in the likes of Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World and the well-received 2015 feature, King Jack.
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Hulu’s eight-episode adaptation of Looking For Alaska is expected sometime in 2019.