It’s not often that a movie poster generates controversy, but it’s not often that a best-selling novel about cancer-stricken teens get adapted for the big screen either.
A new piece of promotional art for The Fault in Our Stars was unveiled on Buzzfeed yesterday, with many fans doing a double take over the tagline below stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort.
ONE SICK LOVE STORY, it reads, prompting many to wonder if – based on the aforementioned delicate subject matter – this is some kind of twisted joke.
But John Green, the author of the novel, took to Tumblr and defended the studio’s decision.
“I like the tag line,” Green writes. “I found it dark and angry in the same way that [the main character] Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor. I mostly wanted something that said, ‘This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.’
“But that’s not a very good tag line. I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories. Love and joy and romance are not just things reserved for the well.”
Concluded Green:
“What matters most to me is that you’re seeing Shailene as Hazel and Ansel as Gus for the first time, and it seems like people are (mostly) pretty happy with what they’re seeing, which is what I was anxious about.”
What do you think of The Fault in Our Stars being billed as “one sick love story?”