One Direction Fanfiction Movie ‘After’ Moves Forward At Paramount With New Writer
Thank (or blame, depending on how you feel about it)Fifty Shades of Grey: Another famous piece of fanfiction is getting turned into a movie. Paramount is moving ahead withAfter, an adaptation of theOne Direction-inspired novel byAnna Todd, with the help ofMomandTwo and a Half MenwriterSusan McMartin. Find out all about the One Direction fanfiction movie after the jump.
Afteris likeFifty Shades of Greyin more ways than one. Todd’s story began as a popular bit of fanfiction onWattpad, where it racked up over 1 billion reads. It later got picked up by Simon Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint, and after some reworking (including new names for the characters), was published in fall 2014.
Also likeFifty Shades of Grey,Aftercenters around the steamy but rocky romance between a virginal student (here named Tessa) and an emotionally unavailable bad boy (here named Hardin, and loosely modeled after One Direction band member Harry Styles). Todd herself has described her book as"the vanilla version ofFifty Shades of Grey."
Paramount picked up the rights toAfterin October, a few days ahead of its publication.Jennifer GibgotandAdam Shankmanare producing. No director or stars have been announced. (For her part, Todd has said she envisionsDouglas BoothandIndiana Evansin the lead roles. “I would love Harry to do it, but I can’t imagine him getting into that kind of role,“she told E! last year. “He is too sweet to play him.")
It’s hard to blame Paramount for wanting to replicate the success Universal found withFifty Shades of Grey. Made on a budget of $40 million, it wound up grossing $569 million worldwide. Indeed, others are following theFifty Shadesformula even more closely — in 2013, Constantin Films acquired the rights toBeautiful Bastard, based on a differentTwilightfanfiction story.
McMartin is known for her work on the CBS showsMomandTwo and a Half Men. She also wrote the script forCook, an upcoming film starring Eddie Murphy and Britt Robertson.
