The winding path to an onscreen adaptation for John Green’s first novel is coming to a successful end.

Streaming service Hulu will release “Looking for Alaska” as an eight-episode series Oct. 18, executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage said during a New York City BookCon panel that included Indianapolis author Green and actors Kristine Froseth and Charlie Plummer.

“Looking for Alaska” was published in 2005, two years before Green moved to Indianapolis.

The story set in an Alabama boarding school — similar to the one Green attended as a teenager — focuses on narrator Miles “Pudge” Halter and the sizable influence of fellow 16-year-old Alaska Young. As Halter describes Young in one of the book’s famous quotes, “If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

Plummer portrays Halter in the Hulu series, and Froseth portrays Young.

Green initially sold the film rights to "Looking for Alaska" in 2005. The project stalled in development before a deal was announced in 2014 in which actress-filmmaker Sarah Polley would write and direct a film adaptation.

The Polley plan never came to fruition, and even a version featuring "The Fault in Our Stars" screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber was scrapped.

At BookCon, Green credited Schwartz and Savage for working toward a "Looking for Alaska" adaptation from the outset.

"I'm just so happy that Josh and Steph, who are the people who've been working on an adaptation of the story this entire 14 years, are the people who get to make it," Green said.

Schwartz said Hulu's "Looking for Alaska" is set in 2005. "It's the last moment of time before the iPhone," he said. Known as the creator of "The O.C.," Schwartz said the "Looking for Alaska" soundtrack will include 2005-era songs interpreted by newer acts.

Updates on other Green adaptations

>> A Bollywood film adaptation of Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" is scheduled for release Nov. 29. Published in 2012 and partially set in Indianapolis, "The Fault in Our Stars" novel surpassed 10 million in sales. A 2014 film adaptation starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort sold more than $300 million in tickets worldwide. The upcoming Hindi version is titled "Dil Bechara" ("the helpless heart"). The project was titled "Kizie aur Manny" when it was announced in July 2018.

>> Hannah Marks has been announced as director for a film adaptation of Green's latest novel, "Turtles All the Way Down." Fox 2000, the studio that released 2014's "The Fault in Our Stars" and 2015's "Paper Towns" (also based on a Green novel), optioned "Turtles All the Way Down" in 2017. The fate of a "Turtles" film became somewhat murky after Disney acquired Fox's entertainment assets in March. Disney announced that Fox 2000 will be shut down. Disney also promised a role for Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler through "the completion of the current slate."

>> "Let It Snow," a 2008 compilation of stories by Green and fellow authors Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, is being made into a movie for Netflix. The holiday-themed story will feature Kiernan Shipka and Joan Cusack in its ensemble cast.

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Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at 317-444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.