Hulu to Adapt “Looking for Alaska” As Limited-Run Series

John Green’s debut novel Looking for Alaska was optioned in 2005 to be adapted into a film, but after several false starts, it seemed that a movie adaptation was going nowhere. Yesterday, it was announced that Josh Schwartz – the man behind Gossip Girl, The O.C., and Marvel’s Runaways – will be bringing the story to Hulu.

Schwartz has been trying to get Looking for Alaska made for 13 years, and now it seems that it will finally happen. Hulu is finalizing a deal for an eight-episode limited series of Looking for Alaska from Fake Empire, the company Schwartz co-runs with Stephanie Savage.

A synopsis for Looking for Alaska, for those who (like me) have not read the book (I’ll read it, I swear!):

Miles “Pudge” Halter […] is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

Schwartz will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Savage and Green will also executive produce along with Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill. Lis Rowinski from Fake Empire will co-executive produce. (That’s…a lot of executive producers.)

Looking for Alaska is John Green’s third book to receive a live-action adaptation, following The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and Paper Towns (2015).

Schwartz and Savage’s other shows, Runaways (Hulu) and Dynasty (the CW), have both been renewed for season 2.

I’m pretty excited for this, actually. I do have the book on my to-read pile (which is a literal stack of books in my living room), so it looks like I’ll have to bump it up on my list. Plus, I’m a fan of Schwartz’s other shows, and with the author involved in production, it should remain fairly true to the source material that I haven’t read yet. Not to mention, a limited-run series tends to work better in adapting a book, because there won’t be the same time constraints that there would be in a feature film, which means they won’t have to cut much (if anything) out.

What do you guys think?

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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