SeaWorld Scene Cut From John Green's 'Paper Towns' Film
Via Hollywood Reporter by Rebecca Ford 1/16/2015 8:00am PST.
Fans of John Green's Paper Towns will notice at least one significant change when the movie adaptation hits the big screen in June: A trip to SeaWorld has been cut from the wild night shared by Quentin (Nat Wolff) and Margo (Cara Delevingne).
In Green's 2008 book, the teens wrap up Margo's night of revenge by sneaking into the Florida theme park, because it's the only one she says she hadn't yet broken into. But when The Fault in Our Stars scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote the script for Paper Towns, they cut the now-controversial park from the story, choosing to end the night with their trip to Orlando's SunTrust building.
"Since [John] wrote the book, the documentary [Blackfish] came out. I think it's a little less playful to go to SeaWorld now," producer Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill tells THR.
SeaWorld came under fire after the 2013 doc Blackfish revealed the deadly consequences of keeping orcas in captivity. The controversy led to significant drops in attendance for the theme park, loss of performers, a 45 percent stock drop and the resignation of CEO Jim Atchison in December.
Fox 2000's Paper Towns, directed by Jake Schreier, follows Quentin, a teen whose enigmatic neighbor Margo disappears after the pair go on a late-night adventure of revenge against the people who have wronged her. It's the second movie adaptation of Green's books, following 2014's massive hit The Fault in Our Stars. Fault, which became a box-office hit due in part to the strong support of fans of the book, has earned $304.9 million worldwide.
A version of this story first appeared in the Jan. 23 (pre)issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
