Finding Finch
There are going to be a lot of tears tomorrow.
Perhaps it’s a silly thing to write about, but I don’t get to indulge my fanboy nature very often.
I fell in love with this book, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. Sometimes, it feels like I never shut up about it. But it is that book. It is the book of my heart, the book that broke me in the middle of my grief, the book that spoke to me, as suicidal and as a survivor, the book that made me keep on living.
And tomorrow, after years of very little news, we are getting a bombshell. We are getting dynamite. We are one step closer to the silver screen. We’re going to find out who’s playing Theodore Finch in the film adaptation.
For those of us who’ve been fans from the beginning, it’s been a very long, and very dry wait. We’ve been clinging onto news about casting, about the script (which the author herself has penned), about any little detail about this movie.
And, my goodness, are we ready for it. For the last few days, Jenn has been dropping teasers, little tidbits of information for her fans to latch onto. I have, for the most part, stayed out of the discussion — I am woefully unfamiliar with today’s young leading men, except for the few I’ve seen in some of my favorite YA adaptations, and their names are definitely being tossed around. But for every name that I recognize, there are two that I don’t.
At 27, I’m practically a geriatric member of this fandom. There are some things you just can’t help.
I’ve been spending most of the weekend advising calmness and civility in the various social media hangouts. I’ve also had a quiet little corner of my mind sending up a prayer for Jenn — as this story is an incredibly personal one for her, and picking an actor to play Finch, making this difficult and beautiful story into a tangible reality, had to be emotionally difficult.
But, somewhere beneath this exterior of adult calmness, respectfulness, and pensiveness, I am feeling a great excitement. We are a step closer to the All The Bright Places movie. There are some things worth fangirling over.
There will be tears tomorrow, and many more tears to come. But also a lot of rejoicing. We will have our Finch; our movie will become just a little more real.
P.S. If any of the producers/casting folks read this, I would definitely love a walk-on part. My acting resume is available upon request.
Zach J. Payne writes poetry, plays, and young adult fiction. He’s an assistant at Ninja Writers, where he helps new writers find their voice and their tribe. He was the query intern for Pam Victorio at D4EO, and his novel Somehow You’re Sitting Here was selected for Nevada SCBWI’s 2015–16 Mentor Program. He lives in Reno.
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