The Fault In Our Stars: Q&A (Part 2) with screenwriters Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
Based on the John Green novel, the movie version of The Fault in Our Stars is creating quite a buzz in social media as it approaches its opening in theaters in North America this weekend. So I reached out to the film’s screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber to see if they would let me ask them 10 questions about the project. They agreed.
I was going to write up a nifty introduction, but a recent feature on the writing duo in the New York Times did a bang-up job, so here it is:
Mr. Neustadter, 37, and Mr. Weber, 36, got their start in 2006 by shopping an original script about a guy who gets his heart smashed after falling for an aloof girl — something that had really happened to Mr. Neustadter. The resulting movie, “(500) Days of Summer,” was Fox Searchlight’s biggest hit of 2009. Last year came “The Spectacular Now,” an indie about love and alcoholism in high school. Adapted from Tim Tharp’s novel of the same name, “The Spectacular Now” was a critical home run, sealing their standing as Hollywood’s go-to channelers of tender teenage angst.
Their fans now include none other than Cameron Crowe, the writer-director behind “Say Anything,” “Almost Famous” and “Jerry Maguire.” “They write characters that are completely free of stereotypes,” Mr. Crowe said in an email. “Their stuff emits a high-pitched signal that says: This is authentic. And funny, too.”
“The Fault in Our Stars,” one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, arrives from 20th Century Fox on Friday. Adapted from John Green’s best-selling novel, the film is a bittersweet story about two wickedly witty teenagers and their runaway romance. The punch-to-the-gut twist: Hazel and Gus, played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, both have cancer.
Here are two more questions I asked Michael and Scott:
The Fault in Our Stars is the first of your movies to feature a female protagonist (Hazel). As writers, what was that experience like working from a female perspective and voice?
Weber: The Fault In Our Stars is our first produced movie with a female protagonist but not the first we’ve written. There were actually a few before TFIOS; most notably Rosaline, our upside down retelling of Romeo & Juliet told from the point-of-view of Romeo’s ex-girlfriend. (Hopefully going into production later this year, with Felicity Jones as the title role.) And since TFIOS we’ve almost exclusively written female protagonists; adapting the novels Where’d You Go Bernadette, Me Before You and Rules of Civility.
When you read John Green’s book, what were some of the key themes you definitely knew you wanted to explore in your script adaptation?
Scott: The projects we gravitate towards are almost always about the same thing — complicated relationships between two people that exist in the real world. In “The Fault in Our Stars,” everyone has cancer. Yes. But this is a cancer movie the way “Field of Dreams” is about baseball or “Remains of the Day” is about a house. “Fault” is a love story, a really beautiful one, but what makes it unique, is that the two people who meet and fall in love are acutely aware of the one thing you and I never think about — how much time is left. That was something that really appealed to us. None of us like to think about the fact that, just like Hazel, we’re all terminal. But it might be worth remembering from time to time.
Here is a clip from the movie The Fault in Our Stars:
For Part 1 of the Q&A, go here.
Come back each day this week for two more questions and answers from Scott and Michael.
To read a great New Yorker feature on author John Green, go here.
The Fault in Our Stars opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, June 9.
Comment Archive