Popular Harry Styles fan-fiction After by Anna Todd is going to be shopped around to movie studios.
The fan-fiction about the One Direction band member will be represented by United Talent Agency – one of Hollywood’s largest talent groups – as it looks to be adapted for the big screen.
After is a fan-fiction published on Wattpad chapter by chapter and has amassed a huge readership. The synopsis for the first book reads, “Tessa Young is an 18 year old college student with a simple life, excellent grades, and a sweet boyfriend. She always has things planned out ahead of time, until she meets a rude boy named Harry, with too many tattoos and piercings who shatters her plans.”
The first book in the series has been read by over 150 million people worldwide. After 2 has had 156 million readers, and most staggering of all, After 3 has collected 300 million readers.
With such a big audience, UTA thinks that a studio will be interested in grabbing the film rights. It’s a concept that would be very similar to Fifty Shades of Grey, the book that started as a Twilight fan-fiction and then was published physically with different names replacing the characters of Edward and Bella.
Similarly, After will have to avoid using “Harry Styles,” the names of other One Direction members, and people like “Elizabeth Banks” and “Matthew Fox” should it move into physical book form or if it’s turned into a film.
After the news broke on Deadline today, Todd released a statement in which she addressed some of the concerns of readers. “Fanfictions are turned into books/movies all the time so I hope those of you who dislike After or me, will just take a step back and look at this as an opportunity for yourself and with all the amazing things happening with Wattpad you could be the one having a movie next! So try to remember that Wattpad is an amazing and positive community, that being said I won’t engage in any fights so please leave your hateful comments on your own page.”
The film rights to After haven’t been purchased by a studio yet, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated.