Paper Towns (film)

Paper Towns
File:Temple Hill Entertainment - Paper Towns.png Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jake Schreier
Produced by	Marty Bowen Wyck Godfrey
Screenplay by	Scott Neustadter Michael H. Weber
Based on	Paper Towns by John Green
Starring	Nat Wolff Cara Delevingne Halston Sage Austin Abrams Justice Smith
Music by	Son Lux
Cinematography	David Lanzenberg
Edited by	Jacob Craycroft
Production company	Fox 2000 Pictures Temple Hill Entertainment TSG Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	July 24, 2015 (2015-07-24) (North America)
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$85.5 million

Paper Towns is a 2015 American mystery comedy-drama film, directed by Jake Schreier, and based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John Green. The film was adapted to screen by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the same team that wrote the first film adaption of one of Green's novels, The Fault in Our Stars. The film stars Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne and was released on July 24, 2015 in the United States by 20th Century Fox.

Plot

In Orlando, Florida, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, his childhood friend from whom he has since drifted, but still has feelings for. One night, when she climbs through his window and summons him on an all-night road trip of revenge, he cannot help but follow her lead. The next day, however, Margo does not come to school, and after a few days some consider her missing, others just conclude she left to an undisclosed location. Q soon learns that Margo left clues about where she would be going, and concludes she is in a particular paper town in New York state. Q goes there by car with his best friends Ben and Radar, Radar's girlfriend Angela, and one of Margo's best friends, Lacey. They are in a hurry, because they want to be back in time for the prom. On the way Ben gets very happy about the fact that afterwards Lacey will go to the prom with him. Margo does not show up at the assumed spot. Q stays, while the others return with the car. He finds her, but she is not in love with him. She left the clues just to let him know she is safe, not to invite him to follow her. Q returns by bus and Margo stays.

Cast

• Nat Wolff as Quentin "Q" Jacobsen
  • Josiah Cerio as young "Q"
• Cara Delevingne as Margo Roth Spiegelman
  • Hannah Alligood as young Margo
• Halston Sage as Lacey Pemberton
• Austin Abrams as Ben Starling
• Justice Smith as Marcus "Radar" Lincoln
• Jaz Sinclair as Angela
• Cara Buono as Mrs. Jacobsen
• Griffin Freeman as Jason "Jase" Worthington
• Caitlin Carver as Becca Arrington
• Meg Crosbie as Ruthie Spiegelman
• Susan Macke Miller as Mrs. Spiegelman
• Tom Hillmann as Mr. Spiegelman
• Jim Coleman as Detective Otis Warren
• Ansel Elgort (cameo) as Mason

Production

Pre-production

The rights to the film had been optioned since at least 2008. With Green himself writing the first draft of the screenplay.

Although the novel features a scene set in SeaWorld the location was changed after the release of the CNN documentary Blackfish. On March 24, 2014, Green announced via Twitter that Nat Wolff would be playing the protagonist Quentin "Q" Jacobsen in May 2014 with Cara Delevingne casting of Margo Roth Spiegelman announced the following September

Filming

Although the novel is primarily set in Orlando, Florida, the tax incentives of North Carolina for filmmakers made it the affordable choice for principal photography according to Green. The crew was encouraged to finish filming before December 31, 2014, the date on which certain tax incentives would have expired.

Filming began on November 3, 2014 in and around Charlotte, North Carolina and concluded on December 19, 2014. On November 17–18, filming was due to take place at the Mooresville Arts Depot in Mooresville, but due to weather conditions the schedule was moved to November 18–19, where the film was shot on location all day, both days. Production was set to be moved to Wilmington on December 2 to film the high school scenes among extras, though due to a change in venue, filming began in Cabarrus County outside of Charlotte. Crews were filming at Central Cabarrus High School in Concord, which was transformed into "Jefferson Park High School", December 2 through 8. Cast members dressed for warm weather even though it was cold.

Release

The film was originally supposed to be released on July 31, 2015. The date was later shifted to June 19. The date was again shifted, to June 5, the day before the 1st anniversary of The Fault in Our Stars' film release. Then again in March 2015, the release date was shifted to July 24, 2015, which was previously assigned to Poltergeist.

Music

The soundtrack gathers new and previously released material from Twin Shadow, Santigold, Grouplove, HAIM, Vampire Weekend, The Mountain Goats, The War on Drugs, Galantis as well as Nat Wolff and his brother Alex Wolff. Atlantic Records President of Film and TV and soundtrack producer Kevin Weaver and music supervisor Season Kent (both of whom worked on the soundtrack for The Fault in Our Stars in 2014) served as the soundtrack's producers.

Charts

Chart (2015)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	44
US Billboard 200	89
US Soundtrack Albums (Billboard)	6

Reception

Box office

As of September 6, 2015, Paper Towns has grossed $31.5 million in North America and $50.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $81.9 million, against a budget of $12 million.

In the United States and Canada, Paper Towns opened in 3,031 theaters on July 24, 2015, alongside two other films, Pixels and Southpaw. Box office pundits projected the film to earn around $20 million in its opening weekend, facing direct competition with Pixels and the holdovers of Ant-Man and Minions. Box office analysts also noted that it could have easily overperformed and had a higher debut, if teen girls – which are its primary target – would have embraced the film and word-of-mouth had gone viral. Paper Towns made $2 million from its Thursday night showings, which began at 9 p.m. at 2,500 theaters; 500 of the screens were preceded by a live-streaming event. It then earned $6.3 million on its opening day from 3,301 theaters. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $12.5 million and finished 6th at the box office, falling short of industry projections and earning much less than the $48 million opening weekend gross of The Fault in Our Stars, a 2014 adaption of John Green's novel of the same name.

It had a major worldwide release on July 24, 2015, in 34 markets grossing $7.9 million from 3,905 screens in 39 markets. It opened in Brazil on July 10, 2015 – the first country to release the film – and earned $2.38 million in its opening weekend, from 630 screens, debuting at third place at the Brazilian box office, behind Minions and Terminator: Genisys. However, in terms of admissions, it was second behind the former film. It had notable openings in Mexico ($1.54 million) and in Australia ($1.53 million). It was released in 18 additional countries in late July and early August, including Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 56% approval rating, based on 115 reviews, with a rating average of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Paper Towns isn't as deep or moving as it wants to be, yet it's still earnest, well-acted, and thoughtful enough to earn a place in the hearts of teen filmgoers of all ages." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 56 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In CinemaScore polls conducted during its opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

External links

• Paper Towns at IMDb
• Paper Towns at Box Office Mojo
• Paper Towns at Rotten Tomatoes
• Paper Towns at Metacritic
• Paper Towns on Twitter