John Green and Veronica Roth on Bringing Books to the Big Screen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOLKhE0hYwk

Writers John Green and Veronica Roth captivated Hollywood when their books won legions of young fans.

Still, the successful scribes wanted to make sure their prose in big pictures had purpose.

“They made a convincing case that they would make a movie that would honor the book,” Green tells Made in Hollywood of "The Fault in Our Stars.” The author is also responsible for the summer book-turned-movie “Paper Towns.”

“The Fault in Our Stars,” Green says, is “one of the most faithful adaptations I’ve ever seen.”

“Divergent” series author Roth adds that adapting books for film—which are "entirely different mediums"—lends itself to different interpretations of the original project. Still, there’s a significant element that she says, an author, is important to maintain.

“For me, the priority is to keep the characters feeling the same,” Roth explains. “It’s helpful that these movies have such a wonderful cast.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oKqqcUyq2U

Both Roth and Green share castmates Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as lead players in their teen dramas.

“The Fault in Our Stars” writer Green credits stirring up interest and a loyal fan base—including interacting with them—is what led to his success.

“I’m very fortunate to have a very popular video blog with my brother, and the community around those videos—and some fans from my previous books—were very supportive of ‘The Fault in the Stars’ before it came out.

But earning a hit career was a different path for “Divergent” author Roth. “Mostly it’s about getting your work better,” she reveals. “I worked really hard on the book itself.” Roth emphasizes that most of her time spent crafting a popular book series involved “a lot of revising.”

It’s that same work ethic that she believes stirred the momentum to being published. “I sent a summary of my project to agents, because if you want to be published by a major publisher you need a literary agent,” she advises. “I got interest from an agent and she pitched it to publishers. It’s been a whirlwind.”