"trying to make money out of him" after his suicide. Meanwhile, to Will's despair, he falls in love with a woman called Rachel. Rachel is a single mother with a son named Ali (Alistair), who is the same age as Marcus. The two originally fight, but quickly become friends. Will's emotional faculties are liberated and he begins to "shed [his] old skin" of emotional indifference; simultaneously Marcus is becoming more typical of his age, and he begins to enjoy his life more. The penultimate scene takes place in a police station in Royston (a small suburban town), where nearly every significant character in the novel is present, their common link being Marcus. The novel ends during a three-way dialogue between Marcus, Will and Fiona, where Will, to see if Marcus has truly changed, proposes the idea that he play a Joni Mitchell song on Fiona's piano, which she is enthusiastic about. However, Marcus responds saying he "hates" Joni Mitchell, whereby Hornby concludes the novel with the narration saying "Will knew Marcus would be OK". Title The title is a reference to the song "About a Girl" by Nirvana. This was confirmed by the author in the 2 December 2001 edition of the BBC Radio 4 series "Book Club". The band is also mentioned several times in the book. In other media Film A film adaptation was released in 2002 by Chris and Paul Weitz. It starred Nicholas Hoult as Marcus, Hugh Grant as Will, Toni Collette as Fiona, and Rachel Weisz as Rachel. While the screenplay closely follows Hornby's novel, it omits scenes involving drug use and has a different ending. It removes any reference to the band Nirvana and Kurt Cobain; instead, Will introduces Marcus to rap music. The soundtrack to the film, including several full songs and numerous incidental pieces, was composed entirely by British singer-songwriter Badly Drawn Boy, apart from the song featured in the plot, "Killing Me Softly with His Song". The film received positive reviews from critics, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and earned $130,549,455 at the box office against a $30 million budget. Television The movie was also the basis for a 2014 American television series, which aired on NBC. The show's pilot episode was directed by Jon Favreau. It lasted for two seasons (33 episodes) before being cancelled by NBC on 8 May 2015. Audiobook An unabridged version