After breaking out in Joe Wright’s extravagant Anna Karenina and booking a bevy of supporting roles in promising projects like Pan and Tulip Fever, model-turned-actress Cara Delevingne has locked down her first lead role, in John Green adaptation Paper Towns.
The actress joins Nat Wolff, who previously played Isaac in The Fault in Our Stars (also based on a bestseller by Green), in the coming-of-age mystery. She’ll take on the role of Margo, a beautiful and enigmatic high school senior. Margo shares a special bond with lovestruck neighbor Quentin (Wolff) after, as children, they discovered the body of a local man who had committed suicide.
Over the years, the two grew apart, but they’re unexpectedly brought back together when Margo appears at Quentin’s window one night, dressed as a ninja. Enlisting Quentin’s assistance, Margo begins a nightlong campaign of revenge against those who have hurt her, but when she vanishes the next morning, Quentin finds himself looking for clues as to what happened to her.
The gig will undoubtedly be Delevingne’s biggest acting challenge to date, and with the number of projects she has in the works, there’s no doubt that Delevingne is about to ascend to It Girl status in Hollywood. Fox’s confidence in her ability to take on a character as complex as Margo is a great sign.
Robot & Frank director Jake Schreier will helm Paper Towns, working from a script by The Fault in Our Stars scribes Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter. The film is just one of multiple John Green adaptations put into development after the breakout success of The Fault in Our Stars – his novels Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines have both been optioned, and Stories We Tell helmer Sarah Polley is set to scribe and direct the former.
20th Century Fox is hoping to have Paper Towns into theaters next summer. No date has yet been set, but with the leads, director and script all locked in place, that announcement should come soon enough.