Trouble with ‘Alaska’ movie

By: Caitlin Moynihan, Columnist

Some weekends I am really productive. I study for all upcoming exams, outline papers and actually look at my planner to see what I have to get done for the next week. I am going to be honest: this past weekend was the complete opposite.

I visited my parents, ate my weight in queso at Blue Agave in Federal Hill and the most effort I exerted went into making buffalo chicken dip.

While I was wasting hours on YouTube, I stumbled upon a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos from “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Paper Towns,” which reminded me of how much I loved John Green novels and wished for a film adaption of my favorite Green book, “Looking for Alaska.”

This obviously brought out the reporter in me and I began to research the possibility of this wish, which led me to instant devastation. Just this week, Green let his true feelings be known through his Twitter account–though the tweets have since been deleted.

According to Green, Paramount has stopped all communication with him and he is no longer involved in the project in any way. Cue tears. After the huge success of the first two movies, it was a no-brainer for “Looking for Alaska” to follow suit.

Not only is it the most emotional book, but it is the fan favorite as well. Unlike the prior movies, “Looking for Alaska” is owned by Paramount Pictures instead of Fox. At first, the movie looked as if it was well on its way to success when Green teamed up with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber once again to write the screenplay last February.

The film was then put on a hiatus in late 2015 when the process of finding the perfect person to play Alaska was harder than anticipated. According to Green, this was just the start of his frustrations and is claiming that he can’t “get anyone to answer the telephone, let alone cast a movie.”

In a series of now deleted tweets, Green expressed his feelings and responded to fans stating that he also wishes that rights to the novel/movie were with Fox instead of Paramount and he appreciates those who say they will boycott the movie if Green so desires.

Not only is this frustrating to discover as a fan of Green and his work, but this is so wrong from a business standpoint as well. It is obvious that Green has a big and loyal fan-base, which should encourage a company to do everything they can to meet his wishes.

Not only are they losing his fan-base, but they are gaining enemies and that basic math doesn’t add up. I am holding onto hope that Paramount realizes the error of their ways and cooperates. I’d rather not have a movie than have a bad version of “Looking for Alaska.”

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