The Premiere
Thousands of fans turned up to the event, many holding up the significant clouds from the book cover with the words ‘Okay? Okay’ on them. Their screaming in the background and waving their signs in excitement prove that this is surely one popular story. Stars Ansel Elgor and Shailene Woodley done the red carpet to meet those hoping to glance at their favourite characters come to life. They’re all screaming in the background and waving their signs as their excitement over such a popular story expands as they wait to see the actors and later, the film.
Ansel Elgort begins with his opinion on the film and the book. Though he has not acted in much up until now, he has recently been taking the world by storm since his role in Divergent as Caleb (as Tris’ brother, played by Shailene Woodley), and now as Augustus, or Gus, in The Fault in Our Stars, where he once again plays opposite Woodley. He has been on many talk shows since, one being The Ellen Show where it was revealed that he has a mystery talent; painting tiny pieces of art.
John Green talks about his hopes from the book he wrote as well as the film that has derived from it. He is also the author of other books such as: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances, Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Paper Towns has already been signed up to also become a film adaptation with Fox 2000 and the same team as worked on The Fault in Our Stars! Green can be seen signing people’s posters after claiming, ‘I am so proud of the movie that they made. I think they’ve made an extraordinary adaptation.’
Shailene Woodley has been dubbed the ‘next Jennifer Lawrence’ by many, much to her disdain as she hates how everyone is compared to one another. She received great reviews from her performance in Divergent earlier in the year and now all eyes are on her as she continues with her career. There have been many interviews where she shares her strange beauty secrets and she shares some wisdom from this film in the clip.
Nat Wolff, who plays Isaac, will also play Q in Paper Towns. His interview is the cutest thing as he can’t focus on his interview while he’s stood by such a famous celebrity on the red carpet! Wolff seems to be one to keep an eye out for in the years to come. Willem Dafoe’s face is exactly how I, personally, imagined van Houten to look in the book, it’s uncanny and quite frankly, a bit disturbing. He’s confident the film will be successful.
If you want to hear what the actors had to say for themselves, watch the video now!
The Plane Scene
In the book, the plane scene is incredibly cute and relatable to many readers out there. Augustus has never been on a plane before so naturally, the cool dude who’s always charming and collected loses it temporarily as the plane takes off. Gus takes it in his stride with a little encouragement from Hazel and manages to pull of one of his well-known quips which really does add some humour to the scene and will have fans squealing with joy.
Hazel’s unsympathetic comment about Gus’ driving is hilarious after how his skills were described in the book. It sounds genuinely terrifying to be in a car with him (sorry, Gus, I still love you!); but he does have a good reason for being a less than stellar driver. The dynamic between the two characters in this scene is perfect as Gus is the charming, confident individual though he loses this as he experiences something new, and Hazel is as awkward as ever whilst trying to make an effort for the one person who treats her as a person and not as an illness.
This scene is reminiscent of the book as they stay true to the characters and the plotline, and this decreases the anxiety over the quality of the film in comparison with the book. The more that is released, the more of the book that is seen, and that is what fans want to see. The characters and the story from the book, not someone else’s interpretation; it looks like fans will be extremely pleased with this adaptation.
The Music
A band called GroupLove recorded a song named Let Me In which, as any fan of the book will know, is already relevant due to the title and Gus’ struggle to get Hazel to open herself up to others and learn to live and enjoy life, opposed to closing herself off to avoid hurting those who love her when she finally loses her battle. The band state that the inspiration for the song came from the film itself as they wanted to capture the essence to naturally fit into the film.
Charli XCX wrote her piece, Boom Clap, to express the emotions between the two protagonists as they fall in love with each other over the course of the film. Gus does not want to know about Hazel’s cancer, but about her as he loves the girl, not the illness, and many people will cancer are treated differently because of this but he refuses to identify her with this disease. Gus’ terrible driving adds to the fun love between them.
Birdy’s Not About Angels follows Hazel’s struggle to let herself love Gus as she fears what she will do to him in the end. She’s scared to let anyone in, even her parents, as she doesn’t want to cause any pain. Gus is resilient and looks hurt when she tells him this. Birdy’s strong and angelic voice is the perfect addition to this epic soundtrack for this epic love story.
Now, for the artist everyone has been waiting for: Ed Sheeran! He wrote about the love story itself between Gus and Hazel and the beauty of it. Despite her apparent impending doom, Gus shows Hazel that she can enjoy her life and experience the world before her time is up, resulting in the perfect whirlwind romance. A few new clips are revealed and it’s heart-wrenching. The two are so happy together and are so cute that you just want to smush them together and make them kiss, yet a story must have an end and this is what people are afraid of.
The soundtrack has had a lot of thought and effort go into it and it shows as each song fits into the film like a puzzle as the talented artists wrote about a part of the story in their songs, resulting in an epic set list that would be hard to beat.