Rian Johnson - Brick (Teen Noir)

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As I've mentioned before, I'm working on a novel. Originally, I developed the concept for a script -- there's likely an old thread on the logline board where I posted it when I was still in script mode. Then I decided to write it as prose fiction and adapt it for the screen, after. Anyway -- I was talking to friend who has experience submitting work for consideration to publishers and, while picking her brain, she asked, "What's the genre?" That gave me pause. Because my protag is 16 years old but, since she's hunting down the person who killed her father in a hit and run, it's not exactly YA. (It's in the same neighborhood of Winter's Bone -- which had a 16 yo old protag, a book adapted for the screen.)

So I did some research on publishing sites and came across an article that helps me nail down the genre of my book: Teen Noir.

In the middle of the article, the writer makes a point that the popularity of noir has a connection to when society is, well, in a dark mood. Then she references Brick:

Rian Johnson wrote the screenplay for Brick in 1997. He pitched the script for seven years but no one was interested in making a teen noir. Instead, he scraped together the budget with help from family and friends. Brick was released in 2006 to positive reviews, but it wasn’t until 2008—after the Great Recession, bookended by the War on Terror and the war against ISIL—that Empire Magazine listed it as one of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

I didn't know Brick was originally written in 1997 and passed on by the industry. I thought this tidbit may be of interest to others. Anyway -- the article also breaks down other sub-sets of teen noir novels (and the rebirth of the genre in the publishing industry) if anyone is interested. Perhaps Amazon and Netflix would be in the market for teen noir -- who knows?

http://www.penguinteen.com/something...lt-literature/