Author Nicholas Sparks has built an entire empire based on writing books about people who have terminal illnesses falling in love. It turns out he’s not the only guy out there with an interest in cancer romance though, because John Green got into the game with his 2012 novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” and he earned quite a bit of critical acclaim for his efforts. Well, given the quality of the source material, and given the fact that Hollywood has made about a gajillion dollars adapting Sparks’ weepy nonsense into movies, plans are now in the works to make a The Fault in Our Stars movie.
According to THR, Fox 2000 is putting the project together with young director Josh Boone on board to helm and Twilight and Safe Haven vets Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen on board as producers. Boone is new enough to the game that you probably haven’t heard of him yet, but his debut film as a writer/director, Stuck in Love (formerly Writers), shows a lot of promise for a first time filmmaker and is scheduled for release in the US in April, so chances are you might know who he is soon.
As far as the source material goes, the American Library Association’s “Booklist” review journal describes the original novel by saying, “At 16, Hazel Grace Lancaster, a three-year stage IV–cancer survivor, is clinically depressed. To help her deal with this, her doctor sends her to a weekly support group where she meets Augustus Waters, a fellow cancer survivor, and the two fall in love. Both kids are preternaturally intelligent, and Hazel is fascinated with a novel about cancer called ‘An Imperial Affliction.’ Most particularly, she longs to know what happened to its characters after an ambiguous ending. To find out, the enterprising Augustus makes it possible for them to travel to Amsterdam, where Imperial’s author, an expatriate American, lives.”
Early word is that Shailene Woodley and Hailee Steinfeld are currently both in the running to play Hazel, but Shailene Woodley and Hailee Steinfeld have been said to be in the running for every meaty part that’s called for a young female in recent months, so that news should probably be taken with a grain of salt at this point.