There are people in this world who are deserving of respect, but very difficult to take seriously. Professional jugglers, people who leave reviews on Yelp, bartenders who refer to themselves as “mixologists”—these people all have hopes and dreams and vulnerabilities, and there’s enough unseemly shit going down in the world on any given day that compassion must necessarily be the only course of action on the rare occasion we are called to discuss them. Still, their life choices inspire a nasty and unavoidable compulsion for derision. This phenomenon comes across more clearly with the example of, say, fan-fiction writers. These are generally kindhearted and decent folks who have put their creative talents to work as an expression of their passion for pop-culture, and who among us can’t relate to that? (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some troublingly violent pre-tween X-Men fan-fiction moldering in the back of a closet in my childhood home.) And yet, at the same time, fan-fiction writers are very, very difficult not to make fun of.
And so it’s with every available ounce of restraint and decency that we inform you today that a work of One Direction fan-fiction has received a movie deal, as noted by THR. After, a story structured around interactions between fictional characters and members of the popular boy band, was initially published online through virtual writers’ community WattPad and later published in a physical form by Gallery Books. As its author, Anna Todd most likely devoted a lot of personal time and effort to writing this novel, which focuses on the blossoming romance between an untouched Washington State student named Tessa and a sexy, inked-up new classmate based on 1D bandmate/chipmunk in disguise/Taylor Swift song fodder Harry Styles.
The film, which will be produced by people who probably go home to families that love them at the end of the day, has been described as “a Fifty Shades-type story, but for the younger generation.” Paramount will oversee the production, with Susan McMartin (currently a writer on TV’s underrated Mom) adapting the novel’s many words for the screen, including these ones: “I feel as though I am ice and he is fire. We are so completely different, yet the same.”
Key details—director, cast, release date—have yet to solidify, but it won’t be too long. A project with a built-in audience this large and vocal spells low-overhead, high-yield gold for studio executives. Commenters on the WattPad page for After have already flooded the site with glowing reviews: “omg second time reading I stopped in the middle of book three and now I forgot everything that happened in the series so reading it again....... Omg this brings back memories tho,” raves Shooting_Star101! Heba_Baker’s take was even hotter, exclaiming, “i started reading this story about 2 years ago when it wasnt rlly trendy but seeing how huge this book became makes me wanna read it again. ILYY.” This all spells bright days ahead for mastermind Anna Todd, who’s already expanded the After series to a full trilogy, and who’s made up of the same flesh and blood as you or me.