If you’ve sold more than 10 copies of a Young Adult novel, chances are good, someone, somewhere will try to make a buck off it and try to give it the film treatment. Ever since Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter‘ series got kids reading on a global scale, the YA market has become a hotbed of hopeful movie plot lines, characters, and vampires…lots of vampires.
Anyway, Warner Bros. has announced their acquisition of screen rights to ‘I’ll Give You The Sun‘ by Jandy Nelson. This novel won’t even be released until September of this year and WB is so sure it’s going to be one of those typical YA movies, that teenagers, their friends and the parents that read YA will flock to see. (I am unashamedly one of those parents that reads YA novels).
‘I’ll Give You the Sun‘ has been hailed as a multi-faceted, cross-generational coming of age drama of teenage twins, Noah and his sister, Jude. Pages later, there’s a family tragedy, and the kids reunite each with half of the untold story. Both twins are artists and that plays into their personal expression of their adolescent issues. I think what is also setting this book apart from most typical YA lit that has made it to the big screen is the fact that Noah’s character is gay. With LGBT issues being such a hot topic right now, I’m sure that may be some of the reason WB was eager to grab the rights. What’s better than a popular YA novel made into a movie, a controversial and popular YA novel made into a movie.
Denise DiNovi (‘Edward Scissorhands‘ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas‘) and Alison Greenspan (‘The Lucky One‘ and ‘Monte Carlo‘) are set to produce. Courtenay Valenti (‘Focus‘) and newly promoted creative exec Julia Spiro (‘Now You See Me‘) will oversee for Warner Bros.
Author Jandy Nelson, is a poet and former literary agent. Her debut with ‘The Sky Is Everywhere‘ is a critically acclaimed success for a first novel. No word on casting or time-frame. Pick up the novel in September and see if you’re going to be in line for a midnight showing of this one.