We’ll file this under Things To Keep an Eye On
Noir Journal has an interview with Greyscale creator Ryan Dunlap which can be found here.
RD: I see neo-noir as a genre that has many of the trappings of old school noir, but usually packaged in a more modern way. Not having a studio budget, I appreciated . . . the minimalist lighting setups of old noirs. Also, I appreciate that it usually gives us a flawed character working through issues [that] someone in the audience can possibly relate to.
The other element is that neo-noir doesn’t always play in safe areas, whereas a lot of films resolve in a tidy fashion with an upbeat ending, the audience of a neo-noir isn’t sure if the protagonist is going to make it to the end or not. I like leaving the audience in a state where they aren’t sure how things will resolve, and the genre lets me dabble with that.
I have mixed feelings about the trailer but I will say that it looks like it has potential. In the interview Dunlap talks about the influence of the new school crop of noir films like Brick and Memento but when I look at the central conceit of Greyscale, a character who literally sees the world in black, white and gray, what immediately comes to mind are a couple of “eyesight” books; the 1998 novel Noir by K W Jeter and the 1997 novel The Insult by Rupert Thomson. Particularly Jeter’s book. Just an observation really as theses stories seem to have nothing in common, excepting Noir’s and Greyscale’s central conceits, and I haven’t seen anything except for the teaser and read the synopsis.
When his wife Julia is killed in an explosion at a mob warehouse, the world of artist Oliver Allen (Ryan Dunlap) literally turns gray as he begins to suffer from achromatopsia – the inability to see color.
The Mob is after him. Gavin Calhoun (Tim Russ of Star Trek: Voyager, Samantha Who?), is intent on two things: avenging the death of his son who also died at the warehouse; and finding out what Oliver knows about a dead undercover cop who penetrated the Family who happened to be Julia’s father (Anthony Tyler Quinn of Boy Meets World, No Greater Love).
With Calhoun’s murderous lieutenant, Jamison (Doug Jones of Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer) on his trail, Oliver is found by a mysterious woman promising answers to his shaded history, sending the tortured artist on a desperate quest to put together the clues that lead him down a trail filled with betrayal, death, and the possibility that his wife might actually still be alive.
Like I said though, I’m curious. After the jump check out the teaser trailer.
