Following its widely popular cinematic adaptations of YA properties such as Dumplin’ and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Netflix is set to release a film version of Jennifer Niven’s YA novel All the Bright Places (Knopf, 2015). The movie will be available to the streaming platform’s subscribers on February 28.
Compared in the New York Times’ review to Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Niven’s book features a similarly compelling pair of precocious teenagers. It begins on a grim note: seniors Violet Markey and Theodore Finch meet on the ledge of their high school’s bell tower, each contemplating suicide for different reasons. Violet’s sister recently died in a car crash, and Theodore has undiagnosed manic depression. As the two grow closer, teaming up for a geography class project that brings them to locations across Indiana, they work to confront the scars of their pasts and gradually fall in love. But tragedy looms on the horizon for the young couple.
Directed by Brett Haley (the Looking for Alaska mini-series), the film features young stars Elle Fanning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and Justice Smith (Pokémon Detective Pikachu) as protagonists Violet and Theodore. The supporting cast includes Keegan-Michael Key, Alexandra Shipp, and Luke Wilson. Liz Hannah, who last co-wrote the comedy Long Shot, penned the screenplay with Niven. Though originally slated for 2016, production, which began in 2018, wrapped in 2019, with principal shooting taking place in Cleveland; the film was speculated to be released that same year, but the release date was eventually announced as 2020.
All the Bright Places was adult author Niven’s YA debut. Sold in a two-book preempt to Knopf, the novel became a bestseller, won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Young Adult fiction, and was featured on PW’s Best Books of 2015 list. Significant buzz at the 2014 Bologna Book Fair led to the film rights selling before the novel was released, with Fanning signing on to co-produce and star soon after.
“There are no words to express what it’s like to see All the Bright Places turned into a film,” Niven told PW, when asked about the process. “It’s a story that began with a boy I loved—and lost. Then with me sitting alone at a computer. Since then, the book has reached readers around the world who have said the book saved their lives. I couldn’t have anticipated any of this. My hope for the movie is that it reaches the viewers who need it most and reminds them—as the book does—that they aren’t alone.”
Melanie Nolan, v-p and publisher at Knopf Books for Young Readers, shared her excitement for the adaptation. “We are so thrilled to see Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places coming to Netflix,” Nolan said. “This was the book I gave to my mom, to my sister and niece, to my son, and to every friend who crossed my path—and each person in turn has passed it on to someone they love,” she said. “It’s a story that will open your heart to the fragility of life, and to the power of the human connection to help us illuminate the dark moments.”
Random House has just announced that Niven’s next young adult novel, Breathless, will release on October 6.
