In a happy turn of events, Paramount made a great decision today tapping Sarah Polley to adapt Looking For Alaska, John Green’s best-selling YA novel. The news was confirmed on Twitter yesterday by Green himself, who wrote:

Recently, Green’s The Fault In Our Stars was adapted for the screen, opening to favorable reviews (including one from our own Tasha Robinson) and strong box office—more than $167 million on a $12 million production budget. Looking For Alaska, Green’s debut novel about a new student at a boarding school, and his attraction to a free-spirited girl named Alaska, should be in good hands with Polley. In only three feature films, including Take This Waltz and Away From Her, the Toronto-born filmmaker has demonstrated a potent, perceptive voice, drawing from deeply personal and familial experiences. (Stories We Tell, for example, is a documentary about Polley’s enigmatic mother). 

It’s interesting to see Polley travel slightly out of her comfort zone here, hitching herself to both a major studio and a popular teenage novel. Clearly something in Green’s prose spoke to her—and it will be exciting to see how she brings those words to life.