Is 'Looking For Alaska' A Go With Sarah Polley?

When The Fault In Our Stars beat out Tom Cruise's The Edge Of Tomorrow its first weekend at the box office, it essentially guaranteed that studios would be putting their weight behind adapting author John Green's other well-known YA fare. Now The Fault In Our Stars has become one of the most profitable films of the year, so it appears the time has come. Green's first novel, Looking For Alaska , may be next — with Sarah Polley as the adapter*.

Paper Towns is already in the works at 20th Century Fox, to be written by Fault In Our Stars and Spectacular Now adapters Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter and set to star Fault In Our Stars actor Nat Wolff. Now Deadline is reporting that Paramount, which owns the rights to Looking For Alaska, is reportedly in talks with Sarah Polley for the writing and directing gig for a Looking movie.

Looking For Alaska was Green's first novel, and was also the one to land him as a name to watch on the YA scene. Loosely based off of Green's own experiences at an Alabama boarding school, the novel follows a boy named Pudge as her navigates the new waters of the school and, alongside his peers, works through (arguable spoiler) the death of a classmate.

Polley — who has starred in films such as Dawn of the Dead and Go — is the director/writer of the presonal documentary Stories We Tell and the films Away From Here and Take This Waltz , the latter of which starred Michelle Williams as a character looking for herself after years of marriage. Polley's still in talks, but she — like Green all those years ago — is still a director to watch. It'd also be a refreshing twist to have one of these major movies directed by a woman, especially one who's shown a vested interest in providing women with complex representation in her work.

Considering the market for young adult fiction is majority young females, that's important for any adaptation in the genre — Pudge may be the character we travel through the book with, but let's not forget who's in the title.

Oh, and here's a message to Polley, if she's reading this: We've already got some casting suggestions.

*This post initially said that Polley was under consideration for director. In fact, she was under consideration for both writing and directing the project.