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Concept Artwork For Snowcrash?
onethumb writes: "Looks like an artist has been commissioned to do some concept artwork for Snowcrash, a movie adaptation of Neal Stephenson [?] 's book " Obviously we have no confirmation, and the artist says he messed up and did a "Real" city instead of a metaverse one, but regardless, it's the first I've heard of a Snowcrash [?] movie.
There's some other cool stuff on that site too, but the images aren't quite high enough resolution to qualify for Rob's First Rule of Art [?] ;)
you guys? alo? i could have SUH WORN i saw this same page a number of months ago when i was surfing at three in the mornink. Is this new? It seems that so much now (anything > 0) on slashdot is just old news..i dunno, anyone else seen this page before? i'm talking two or three months ago.
me lu lu mu al nu um me en ki me en me lu lu mu me al nu um me al nu ume me me mu lu e al nu um me dug ga mu me mu lu e al nu um me... now when hollywood smucks read this they will make the damn movie and keep their retarded bullshit out of the artist way.
I am sure they would have one (or a few) that could be used for enough money. :)
You mean the old chick? "Chiselled Spam"... heh. --Gotta get me a REASON to live
I have a copy of the snow crash script, reads pretty well but drops a lot of the more subtle nerd humor that Stephenson is so great at sneaking into his writing. Other than that, it is smart and I think captures the book well.
i nominate Gwen Stefani for Y.T. The whole time i was just picturing Gwen thrashing around in her "i'm just a girl" video get up.
going to be open source?
Nice pic, ideal for wallpaper.
This gets a score of 2? Are the moderators on crack?
This was pretty obviously an art student's assignment, not an actual commission. If he were being paid to do this, it wouldn't be on the web *yet*.
moderators? You pattern-matching state machines are no match for actually reading the post, previewing the link (ooh! looks like it's related to the story) following the link, reading the page (wait, maybe this guy is telling the truth!)
So: at the very least moderate this back to 1 again. I can see it looks suspiciously like one of those offtopic link troll posts, but it's not.
OK, no Black/Asian actors are around - but did you see Wesley Snipes in "Blade"? Perfect for Hiro, methinks...
Lead singer of Fine Young Cannibals? Roland Gift. Hmmm, maybe Hiro-material, but not really pumped enough...
Aircraft Carrier?? What does it have to do with Snow Crash? Duh. It's only the main component of the Raft. What else did you think Enterprise was? And yes, Raven does have sex with YT on the Raft/Enterprise - that's why she's able to disable him with the dentata, and escape. Or have I just read Snow Crash too many times?
This isn't art, it's tripe.
.sig removed by court order.
When you are able to create art on the same level as this artist, then you can start creating rules. But until then continue to draw stick figure and shut your trap.
actually found an artist who could make time to read the book?! I dunno, maybe that's just too logical.
she is 15 in the book and i thought about gwen's age and new it wouldn't work, but don't you agree that when Gwen was young she would have made the perfect Y.T.?
If I was going to cast Raven, I would use the guy who played the indistructable bad guy in _Hard Boiled_ staring Chow Yun Fat and directed by John Woo. That guy could pull it off. Y.T. would be harder. Have to find someone young and intense. Not one of the standard whitebread Dawson Creek types. As for Hiro... That is going to be hard. Who are you going to get who can handle a sword that well?
.. ought to be ashamed.
Seriously.
Snow Crash is Neuromancer on steroids. Don't get me wrong; I liked Gibson's seminal cyberpunk novel very much. But Stephenson just has a better story.
That is all.
If you have not read Snow Crash, you must add it to your TODO file.
Would make a better movies. There is just too
much wierd stuff in Snowcrash to fit it in.
DA is a pretty clear-cut story about a girl
growing up and finding her "mother" and saving
her with a bunch of nano-tech stuff thrown in
Although handling the drummers sex stuff would be
tricky. Mebbie they could just kiss.
Actually, Cryptonomicon would probably make
the best movie. Set somewhere in reality, so
the sets would be easier. Are they going to do
that?
-- ac
Aircraft carrier?? What does an aircraft carrier have to do with Snow Crash? Sheesh, this post is obviously off-topic. p.s. this time NP would be legal, so she could, um, dress the part. NP==Tasty! Better than hot grits!
If I was a moderator, I'd moderate this up another point, as being funny. Neal *really* needs to work on his endings.
He's Baptist, I belive, and quite ardent, but not to the point of being as weird as Hubbard or anybody like that.
Bernie Ebbers (the guy) was looking for investors about 10 years ago before they really had all that much to talk about, and he asked my dad. When he got to the point where he said that Jesus was behind his business, my dad decided not to invest in Worldcom. Oh well, we'd be sitting pretty now!
Oh, and Bernie Ebbers was a PE major in college.
As wonderful a read as Snowcrash is, Zodiac would be the easiest to translate on film. It could make a great TV series, as well: asshole toxic avenger rides around Boston on bikes and zodiacs saving the world. I'd make it as caustic as Fox's great series, "Action" (unfortunately canceled).
I just picked Snow Crash off my shelf the other day, wiped the dust off of it, and started reading it again, then this happends.....
A 2 hour movie could not do this book ANY justice.
Especially trying to do the really cool fight seens, creating The Clink, or even The Raft (do you think they could rent an Aircraft carrier?)
here.
thank you.
OK, stop surfing the web for cool stuff and get that Engine done! ;)
Natalie Portman has to play YT so that I can pour hot grits down my pants while I'm having sex with a petrified minor on an aircraft carrier! Listen to Reason! Moderate up this post :P
I actually rode on the simulator that used the picture here It was a fun ride.
okay???
SUCKS.
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KING OF TROLLS
FUCK YOU
Thank you... thank you very much.
thats my o-pin-yun. if u dont like it then ram a log up yer ass and bear it. hilkul grebin prebarro lockesty. coceptus lyblo consescus. retrow lepslag grebin trollicus maximus.
FUCK YOU
Those paintings look like a cross between Microsoft Flight Simulator and Sim City's Archologies. Count me out of this future. Jake
How will they handle the sex scene with the 15 year-old girl? Film it in Europe where such things are legal? This is a serious question, as anyone who's read the book knows!
Ahem. "Zion" means "sunny mount." It is literally meant to be the south-west hill of Jersusalem. Sometimes "Zion" is used to denote the entirety of Jerusalem, or occasionally the Jewish homeland. Hershel, for example, called himself a Zionist.
In related news, _The Matrix_ did not get the name "Nebuchandezzar" from that book in _Barton Fink_.
s/I think that it's/I think that/;
Stupid brain not functioning this early...
--
Craig Mullins (the artist), also did some Myth 2 art for Bungie that made its way into print ads for the game (and the Linux version's CD IIRC).
:wq
The movie made from Eaters of the Dead was The Thirteenth Warrior. It was good, but the fact that they went through three directors trying to make it showed. They had one guy who ran up a huge budget, then had two other people trying to fix it up, one of whom was Crichton himself. IMHO if Crichton had the job of doing it all the way through it might have been better; he's done some directoral work, and has a good reputation at actually bringing stuff in without bloating the budget.
The only thing I can remember, however, is the movie Runaway...
(currently testing something about signatures here)
You mean you people never figured out that L. Bob Rife was a parody of (among other people) H. Ross Perot? I think he probably also works for L. Ron Hubbard and maybe Ted Turner... hmm, I'll ahave to think about that one.
(currently testing something about signatures here)
Isn't the CEO of MCI WorldCom also a Pentecostal fundamentalist of some sort?
The world of Snow Crash didn't have "cities" to speak of, or countries. Just a mosaic of soveigrn "burbs" off of the many highways.
The virtual city wasn't really a city either, it was one main street filled with banner ads for porn, and the rest of the planet was mooth empty roundness.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
The Cyberpunk movies have hithertofore sucked because their respective studios refused to take them seriously.
I mean, Keanu Reeves is an ok actor, but the only reason to ever cast him is if you intend for effects, and not acting, to carry the story.
Snow Crash the best cyberpunk book of all time. Whoever picks it up needs to give the project the directing, money, and acting talent it deserves.
How about Mira Sorvino as Y.T.?
A black-asian actor would probably be impossible to come by, Hiro would probably just have to be black.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Hoo!
I love it!
"Peter The Kitty" is my new desktop wallpaper.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
They could make it enough unlike the Matrix by not giving everything a greenish tint, and by not including any scenes of exploding tile and masonry.
Matrix II: More Exploding Tile
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
David Lynch wanted a mini series for Dune, and originally that is what the producers gave him. Then they screwed him over and forced him to do it as a movie, it's not a project he's very proud of. There are a lot of movies ruined by executives, Fifth Element is another (was supposed to have been four hours).
support gun control: take guns from cops
Has anyone else looked at that picture of the Lincoln? I'm having a hard time convincing myself it's not a photograph.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Not only that, I remember seeing this same image on this same site months ago, maybe even as long ago as a year.
This is the same guy that did this piece of Marathon artwork. Note that he wasn't paid for this - he did it because he wanted to.
Well, the name has been around for longer than that, since it's often used to refer to the Jewish homeland. I'm not sure when it was first used for that, but I'm pretty sure it was before the 1970s. I'm not actually Jewish, though, so my interpretation of the meaning of this may be a little imprecise.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
That's how I felt about the Dune movie. I mean, it's wasn't bad or anything, but Dune (the book) works on such a huge scale that it would be impossible to do a faithful translation of the book in less that 6 hours.
They're doing a Dune miniseries right now here in Europe. Running time: 6 hours....
This is probably the mini-series the Sci Fi Channel will be showing this fall. Here's a link to the information they've published on their Web site:
Exactly, that's the one I mean.
I had a discussion about Neal Stephenson with my roommate last October about his books and possible movies, and how great it could be if it was done right.
:(
I believe that they were trying to do it, but the last i heard it wasn't happening and probably will never happen.
Cryptonomicon would be great on the screen too I think.
- Hugh Buchanan
- Userfriendly.com
Yep, I agree wholeheartedly. I was about to post the same thing but I see that you have already done it. Please Moderate this up, up, up.
Anime would be the only thing that could handle all the movie in all its glory, without really breaking a sweat. The only problem is that they probably wouldn't want to make multiple 2hr episodes (although that would be Great) so you would still have problems with much of the story details having to be cut out. No problems finding your Hiro (pun) or Y.T./Raven stuff.
BTW: Anyone find Y.T. in The Diamond Age.
-- Remember: Wherever you go, there you are!
Roland Gift is the name I think you're looking for.
What I've always wanted to know is: why didn't Stephenson go ahead, after the book was published and became a hit, and make a graphic novel and/or CD-ROM game to go with the book? I seem to recall an author's note at the back explaining that he originally wanted to do this as a comic book, but couldn't....
The writing style and action in _Snow Crash_ seem perfect for storyboards/ comic panels, but I don't think I actually want to see those images moving on a screen.
What's more, as someone else pointed out, they've kinda been beaten to the punch by _The Matrix_. Anyone who hasn't read _Snowcrash_ and sees a movie of it will think: "ah, here's a computer-based sci-fi movie with some badass guys in leather who are constantly making references to Babylonian gods."
"Sumerian."
"Whatever."
The point being that they'll either end up with a movie executive who _has_ read the book and thinks its the best -- someone with a lot of power and enthusiasm to make it happen -- or a cheap-ass studio that just wants to get a piece of Warner's pie. The latter will not do _Snow Crash_ justice, and the former will probably end up being some power-crazy hack like Lucas or DePalma.
Oh my GOD! Bill Gates reads /.! HE'S ON TO US!!!
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I got halfway through and gave up. The plot is a string of cliches and the writing style is dull and incredibly patronising. It was like reading a cyberpunk roleplaying manual adapted for pensioners.
Stopping the story to spend page after page rambling on about a futurist idea is not a good way to write SF, especially if those ideas were done to death a decade ago.
yeah. how the heck are they going to show a 15 year old girl having sex with an older man ? or the gooey parts (the dentata) ? or the carrier enterprise as a raft for refugees ? or the guy with the wires stuck into his brain or getting his head chopped off ? The movie will probably get a triple X rating if made properly. more likely they'll turn it into a mission to mars rehash.
to show the sex scene you have to show her vagina and his penis. big no no for an R rating. the dentata piercing the guys sensitive region aint gonna be shown.
When I was in Chapters just two days ago, I punched up Diamond Age (also by Neal Stephenson), and the caption beside it said that Snowcrash had been optioned for film. I am glad to hear that it looks like it is going ahead, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time... BTW: Does anyone know when Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is due out in the theaters? That was another excellent read.
More Caffeine. NOW
Gwen stefani should be hung.
If anyone put her in snow crash I would feel obligated to firebomb the studio. Her and the whole shiftless pseudo-ska genre should be lined up and shot.
Besides, she is 'so last century'. Casting would select someone more hip like that kirsten dunst girl from drop dead gorgeous...
First Neuromancer, then Snow Crash! NO!!! Books that I love, being put on the chopping block like this. Snow Crash has been an influence on my lifestyle. I can't even count the times I've stomped my brakes and cursed at 'fucking Bimbo boxes' on the highway...
Snow Crash (and Neuromancer, for that matter) was one of those books that FELT like a movie while I read it. Reflecting on it now, I feel like I've seen the perfect movie version already, because Stephenson's characters were so vivid. Anything they do with this story will disappoint me, and many others, I'm sure.
The one genre that I've thought would be able to handle films like Snow Crash (or Neuromancer) would be anime. Busting Snow Crash into 3 2-hour animated episodes would be great. I'd prefer it was voiced in English, but it'd look awesome as anime.
Oh, well... Who'd listen to me. I'd write a screenplay for an animated Show Crash, but having no artistic skills, I couldn't storyboard it. W/o storyboards, I don't think it's the kind of idea that would sell. Besides, the novel really doesn't need a lot of adaptation. (I can think of a few things that might need to be tamed a little for U.S. audiences... Y.T. and Raven's sex scene, potentially some violence.)
Picture it in your mind-- the stereotypical quickly-scrolling-background-art of many an anime production, w/ the magna-poon whipping thru the foreground and sticking on the back of a minivan... Picture it. Ahhh...
The Attitude Adjuster, I hate me, you can too.
I recognize those pictures, those are from Craig Mullins, (think Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity) And that picture has been up for at least a year, if not 2. That should give you a good idea on the time frame...
Maybe the movie is allready done, but is shown only in Japan ... :)
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It sounds like a great idea...it really does...
But, the Sumerian parts, vital, I feel, to the story, would baffle and confound Joe-six-pack. It would come off as 'The Fifth Element' did: "sublime, but fruity."
What I'm trying to say is, like many truly great novels, Hollywould (heh) will leave it a MTV-infected shell of it's former self. I'd rather see it not exist than as a movie.
On the other hand, the reason I saw 'Sphere' was to see the jellyfish attack on a fifty-foot screen. Maybe I can find something worthwhile out of this.
At any rate, let's just hope they don't catch wind of 'The Diamond Age.' <shudder> I don't think I could bear to see what they would do to it. It's just far too dear of a story to me.
-- Remember: There is no difference between a monopoly and a government. --
Maybe the best format would be some sort of serial release on the internet. Every week, release another 3-5 minute segment in mpg. At the end, re-render in high quality and release the DVD.
Or even more fun, write a 3D game-type engine, release the models + engine and script each episode/chapter.
I wonder who currently owns the internet/game rights to Snow Crash?
I heard something somewhere that this film was an inspritation to the guys who made the Matrix.
Looks like wishful thinking to me.
numb
I don't know, something about this just seems wrong to me. I will distrust this until I get confirmation from some actual movie studio.
Besides, I agree that any Snow Crash movie couldn't do credit to the book. The time constraints alone make that impossible - there is much much much more than two hours worth in Snow Crash.
Actually one actor sprang IMMEDIATELY to mind for Hiro. I dont know his name but he had a small part at the beginning of Fifth Element, on the ill-fated ship that discovered the dark star or whatever you'd like to call it. I also recall him in a Chemical Brothers video, and several TV spots peppered all over English TV for the 2 months I lived there in 1997. Anyone know who I'm talking about? I THINK he may be a model. Slim, dark skinned, very almond-shaped eyes. Gee, seems like ALL I saw on TV that summer was Radiohead videos, Chemical Brothers videos, and topless darts... very strange country, that is.
"Eagles may soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines."
I have a suspicion that that would be lost somewhere. My bet is they would write in a Y.T./Hiro affair - I mean, Juanita (the character I most identified with btw) has a very minor part, and Y.T./Raven just doesn't fit what they'd imagine the audience would want to see in terms of fireworks.
Ugh.
If there was a movie adaptation of Snow Crash, I'd almost be afraid to see it. I'd be horribly scared to think of how much it would be butchered to fit the constraints of time and money...
That's how I felt about the Dune movie. I mean, it's wasn't bad or anything, but Dune (the book) works on such a huge scale that it would be impossible to do a faithful translation of the book in less that 6 hours.
Jursasic Park + Lost World, when compared to the books, were crap (of course the only thing the book the Lost World had with the movie was the name...). Seems like all of Michael Chriton's (sp?) books attract people who like to make crappy movies (except The Andromeda Strain, that was OK). Did anyone see the movie that was based on Eaters of the Dead? I don't think the movie was called that though. It had Antonio Banderas, came out last fall or so?
What do _you_ think the Metaverse looks like? How about the Ringworld? Rama?
The Shire/Smaug/The Balrog of Moria? Dune and/or a mile long Sandworm? (Yes, there was a Dune movie (maybe two?) and I didn't think it was very good (though also not terrible)).
Rama... if done correctly, that would be a movie to rival the original Star Wars (at least IMHO). Especially if they did the whole set of books as a series of movies. Doing the stuff where they're floating in zero G along the axis when all of a sudden the lights come on would be at least several million dollars in SX though...
They're doing a Dune miniseries right now here in Europe. Running time: 6 hours....
:)
Hey, cool. Hopefully us here in the US will get to see it.
Does anyone have any info on this DA movie? The books rock (you already know that) but thats gonna be one heck of a feat to put all that on film.
This is probably the mini-series the Sci Fi Channel will be showing this fall. Here's a link to the information they've published on their Web site:
Sanity is relative. For some of us it's just a distant cousin.
I wonder if it is possible to get poster sized prints of his work?
Okay, _someone_ is going to ask this, so why not me: If you were casting the roles, who would play the characters? I'm having a hard time thinking of them, mostly because I don't know any young Asian actors for the role of Hiro, old menacing looking Eskimos, or any hot little 14 year olds now that Natalie Portman is done. So...who would you cast?
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
Speaking of "On-again, off-again"... the HHG movie's still in script-writing. Ah well. It *IS* Douglas Adams writing it, so it can be forgiven. Several times in fact.
----
Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
Agreed, 100%. But then, what movie adaptation doesn't suffer from this? And if you're looking for something even harder to adapt than Snowcrash, it's being done: The Lord of the Rings.
John
Apologies to all Jewish people out there. Yes, you are right. How did I forget my history leasons! Zionism was the movement for a Jewish homeland, thus "Zion" must have come way earlier than any anime series! Hmmm...it seems like Zion seems to be so readily adopted by the sci-fi community because it is a funky name.
-- "I can't tell the future, I just work there." -- The Doctor
On the note of The Matrix lifting the name Zion from the SnowCrash, any Anime fan could point out that the name Zion itself actually originates from the anime series "Gundam" which has been around since the 1970's! In the legendary and revolutionary Mecha series, Zion is the name of the Duchy which invades Earth.
-- "I can't tell the future, I just work there." -- The Doctor
If you look on this website, (My definite source for what's going on with movies.) you'll see the following timeline for Snow Crash's development:
September, 1996... Marco Brambilla is announced to direct the Snow Crash adaptation. [Info and project annoucement courtesy of 'shape'.]
December 2, 1996... Jeffrey Nachmanoff lands the gig to adapt Stephenson's novel. Variety magazine quotes Nachmanoff that he believes the book is "...about the disintergration of American society in the information age." Nachmanoff hopes to start fresh on his take of the story; other screenwriters had turned in previous drafts of the work with no one ever advancing the status of the project. [Scoop sent in by 'shape' and 'pkalapa'; some material acknowledged to Variety.]
October 21, 1997... Nothing new has been reported about the development of the project, except for this one scoop we received: "The project is dead." With nothing new to report of in months the film may very well be trapped in limbo. [Scoop submitted anonymously.]
The project's been reported dead for nearly 2 1/2 years now. The art you have is probably from WAY back.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
I'm waiting for the sequel, "blue screen crash," where the computer spews apparently random garbage on the screen, in turn causing the user to utter gibberish in an ancient mesopotamian language, phrases like "chkdsk" and "mem/d"; and partake insidiously in a cult centered around Redmond WA....
UNfortunately those would be the easy things and I have no experience with this book however there are plenty of ways to do sex scenes in a movie. Need someone who looks 15 but is 20? Not to big of a problem..
What is the big deal you never seen surgery or a decapitation in a movie. I seen it more than I really care to admit. Final destination showed an entire decapitation. It was only an R. You have a good bit of liberty with an R Rating as a director/producer.
Jeremy
Well I was talking to a friend in the movie buisness and he said that there have been several scripts writtin, and the all suck. (Then he told me how he thought it was easy to adapt scripts from booka, until he tried. I guess it's actually quite difficult.) And that they have basicly have stopped trying. Which really sucks, Judge looks a little beefy for the part in my eyes, the Fine young cannibals guy would do pretty well. As long as they took care of his bald spot! YT would have to be the same age, if she wouldn't it would screw everything up. Would she live with her mom at the age of 21? well, that takes the FBI out of the story. But I would love a great Snowcrash movie. I still have hope.
It would be amusing (in an evil overlord sense) if they could create the snow crash effect in a movie. This said, there is is a very funny comp.basilik faq in one of the 1999 December issues of Nature in the "futures" section. Online you have to be a subscriber, but you can get hard copy at a public library. (basilik's being visual images that cause the viewer to crash. as seen in all sorts of SFnal writings: Snow Crash natch, a short story in The Mind's I with a Godelian sentence for humans(iirc?), Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone by Ian McDonald, etc etc) sh
I've learned not to get excited over this stuff. Good books just never(maybe rarely) make the transition to the movies. With Snow Crash, just look at the amount of content and plots in the book, its just to much for a movie. And alot of the content would take too much time to explain to the viewer of a movie. Is it just me, or are most book2movie conversions just dumbed down versions of the book?
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
how are they gonna do anything in this book besides hire people to play the few non-computer generated scenes? but woowee wouldn't it be fun to try? no wonder it took so long for a snow crash film to get going eh?... probably waiting for the filmtech to catch up. anyone know how much $$$ they're throwing at this project? With a lot of money and a lot of CG animation lovin', maybe they'll do justice to the nuclear powered portable depleted uranium needle firing gatling gun (named REASON in the book for the unwashed). and YT's skateboard should be neato++. I wonder who'll they'll get to play Uncle Enzo? or Hiro? and duh anyone who hasn't read it, should. rooting for the movie peeps... -x
SnowCrash is definately one of the best Cyber Punk books i have ever read. To bad the movie is garunteed to suck. We need more Cyber Punk!!!!
Aw crud!.... I'd heard David Bowie was gonna play Elrond. If they'd gotten that, it would've made the movie sooo cool, no matter how much of a turkey it was.
The film industry WILL make this movie.
I'm sure they'll listen to reason.
CmdrTaco, Take off your cloths and show hollywood your butt.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
we need s'more good cyberpunk movies! Stupid sci-fi like Mission to Mars just make the entire genre look bad. Plus, cyberpunk is the coolest! Maybe now they'll start making some of Gibson's stuff into movies...
But I had to say that I think the idea of a Snowcrash adaptation could be really cool.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
I heard Stephenson speak on his book tour for Cryptonomicon last year. He started out responding to some FAQs, including (quoted from memory):
Q: Are any of your books being made into movies?
A: No significant work is being done on any movie projects at this time.
That at least was the gist...
- - - -
The real Tetsujin 28 is a giant robot.
When I first read the book I saw Brandon Lee in the Hiro Protagonist role. I don't think he was dead at the time. I suppose casting him now might be difficult :(
What's really scary is that when they come to cast Raven Hollywood execs probably won't look any further than the WWF...
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
Phil is completely right about bits & pieces of H Ross Perot and Ted Turner showing up in L Bob Rife...But the whole issue of him being a pseudo-religious/cult leader, the name, and the fact that he floated around on The Raft (L Ron and his cronies in Scientology used to float around in international waters to avoid the IRS) are clearly L Ron influenced.
The Snowcrash concept is in the artist's concepts2 page. The updates indicate that concepts are added by date, about nine per page, and that the concepts5 page has just been filled. Based on the artist's statements about time, I'd guess this was commissioned at least three years ago, making it non-newsworthy...
-- Still waiting for the Nike endorsement
Actually, this could be a GREAT movie! The director/writer should just play it as a straight Action flick. Forget all the heavily-researched stuff about mesopotamia and just put in all the cool stuff. The Kouriers, the Deliverator, the sword fights both real and virtual. And have Hiro played by Vin Diesel from Pitch Black!
"Sir, I gotta say this," the salesman says. "You look like one bad motherfucker."
//rp
I disagree that the namshub 'mumbo-jumbo' is a weak element in the book. For me, it was one of the aspects of the novel that actually elevated it above much else in the genre. Computers, code and linguistics are intimately entwined; the idea of an ur-language has interesting ramifications in metaspace and in contemporary cultural and critical theory. Stephenson adeptly addressed the issues (although he didn't go far enough). For example, look at recent work in performative language and identity in the works of (say) Judith Butler. Code transforms. Language performs. However, Hollywood mutates. Thus, don't think it would work as a film. Now, Cryptonomicon, on the other hand.... sunny
I think most people here are missing the point when they say that the movie won't do the book justice. Of course it won't, but that doesn't preclude it from being a good movie or from becoming a commercial success. I know, commercial success is something of a "bad thing" for some folks here, but that's largely why people make movies, and it's pretty much the only reason that studios finance movies. The movie, if indeed it is ever made, won't be marketed to those of us who have read the book, as we are after all a very small market. It'll be marketed to all the same kind of people who went and made the Matrix such a huge success. Personally, I hope that happens as I'd like to see what kind of film realization could be made of that story.... (This is, by the way, my first post to /.)
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
Who says they have to get a young teen to play the part? Has anybody here ever seen a version of Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet was actually played by a 12 or 13 year old girl?
/.) have praised the movie and his performance in it.
And what about Kyle MacLachlan playing in Dune? He was like at least a decade older than the character was supposed to be, yet many people (including here on
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
This is a long one, including a possible beginning for a screenplay (~1100 words). I considered posting the screenplay snipit offsite, but I decided I didn't want to subject my local ISP to the infamous Slashdot Effect.
I've seen several people make comments to the effect that the bulk of Sumerian mythology introduced in the middle of the book would weigh down a Snow Crash movie. I think an animation sequence like that used to describe humanity's fall in the Matrix might help with this (props to The Cunctator for mentioning this first), but it would still seem awfully abrupt and left-fieldish comming in the middle of the film. I think the animation might work best in combination with a transition from the past to the future at the begining of the movie, as shown below.
If a Snow Crash movie is in fact being made, I give my permission to those involved to use any of the ideas and content presented below free of charge. Just make the damn thing already! If anything, the phenomenal success of The Matrix proves that there is a strong market for smart, kinetic, myth-based sf movies.
FADE UP
EXT - ERIDU, SUMERIA - DAY
As the CAMERA pans across the city-state of Eridu, the time and place is indicated on the screen in cuneiform-looking English script:
ENKI walks through the streets of the city, past the stalls of merchants, with a tense, determined look on his face. He stops to speak with a group of these VENDORS, exchanges hushed words with them, then hands each of them several flat clay tokens with writing etched on them but takes no goods. They bow in thanks and agreement as he walks away.
CUT TO: EXT - ASHERA'S TEMPLE
A small building with serpents etched on either side of the entrance. ENKI enters. Inside the door is VILSEGIN, ASHERA'S assistant, who bows deeply to ENKI. The two speak in Sumerian, which is translated in subtitles.
ENKI and VILSEGIN walk into a small shrine, where ASHERA sits on a throne, surrounded by offerings and incense and flanked by two GUARDS.
ASHERA bows slightly to ENKI as he enters, but without rising and without taking her eyes off of him. Her GUARDS, empty-eyed and staring, do not move at all.
One of the GUARDS steps forward. ENKI stiffens.
As ASHERA speaks, the GUARD removes a large, curved dagger from its sheath on his belt. ENKI steps back quickly, his hand on the hilt of his own sword. The GUARD, however, takes the dager to his own neck, cutting his throat with surgical precision from the left carotid artery to the right. Only after this motion is complete does the GUARD seem to regain his own senses, a look of stunned disbelief covering his face as he drops to the floor. ENKI stares at ASHERA, horrified.
ENKI nods almost imperceptibly.
ENKI turns and strides out.
CUT TO: EXT - STREETS OF ERIDU - EARLY EVENING
ENKI walks quickly through the streets, checking behind him periodically. VILSEGIN follows, attempting to keep out of sight. Near the tall ziguart at the heart of the city, ENKI passes the VENDORS that he spoke with earlier, exchanging a look with them as he passes. Moments later, when VILSEGIN passes them, the VENDORS crowd around him on all sides, thrusting thier wares in his face and shouting a dozen different pitches. He tries to break free, shouting and cursing, but is trapped.
CUT TO: INT - ENKI'S TEMPLE - NIGHT
ENKI sits in a small room -- his workshop -- over a moist clay tablet. His face grim, he takes up a stylus and begins to press marks into the tablet's surface. When he is finished, he puts down the stylus and sits for a moment with his head in his hands. He gives the tablet a final look before shoving it into the kiln to bake. He leaves the room.
FADE OUT
FADE UP
EXT - TEMPLE OF ENKI - THE NEXT MORNING
The CAMERA pans over the top of the temple ziguart, its crest carved with an illustration of several constellations. Beneath the temple, all the people of Eridu are gathered to hear Enki speak. He walks out onto a balcony and waves to the crowd for silence. He lifts a tablet and begins to read.
As ENKI reads, the crowd begins to react to the nam-shub. People begin speaking in languages that are clearly non-Sumerian, the reaction begining at the front of the crowd and spreading backward. As he continues, the babble becomes a roar of panic as the people begin to understand what is happening to them. ENKI finishes reading and looks up from the tablet at what he has done, full of sorrow.
At this moment, ASHERA, VILSEGIN, and three of ASHERA'S GUARDS, their weapons covered with blood, enter through the doorway behind ENKI. He sees them, but does nothing. Immediately, the GUARDS attack him, and he does not resist. As he is stabbed visciously and repeatedly, the tablet falls to the floor and is shattered into three pieces. As ENKI collapses, VILSEGIN surveys the chaos bellow.
The CAMERA pans down from VILSEGIN to the tablet on the floor. As it zooms in closer, we see that the writing, although written in angular cuneiform, is familiar:
The CAMERA zooms through the middle of one of the zeroes.
FADE OUT
Across the screen in "computerized-looking" text:
FADE UP
EXT - FAIRLANES, INC. CSV-5, LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
A bulk lifter drifts through an overcast sky, silent and big as a dozen regualr passenger planes. Below is CSV-5, one of LA's sclerotic "arteries," pulsing red and white. One vehicle in particlular catches our attention, because it's the fastest thing on the road. It's short and wide, jet-black and low to the ground -- the distinctive shape of a Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery vehicle. Inside this particular Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery vehicle is HIRO PROTAGONIST. The vehicle cuts across three lanes of trafic without losing any of its 120 kph, and shoots up an off-ramp. Just above the exit is a giant billboard bearing the face of a handsome older man and a message:
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...I think that it's a lot of what makes the book great is the narrative. For example, the part where it's talking about being a bad-ass motherfucker, and how Raven's nuclear umbrella has put the world title just out of reach. (I think that's pretty much a direct quote, but I don't have the book handy, so I'm not sure.) If you take stuff like that out, you lose a big part of the book. I think to preserve that, there would have to have some form of narration along with the action. That would probably be pretty awkward, though ... depending on how it was done, anyway.
--
The Rastafarians adopted Zion before Gundam.
The Rastas identified themselves with the Hebrews
of the Old Testament, seeing themselves as Jah's
true Chosen People; consequently they borrowed
from Jewish religious terminology (well, what they
could find in common literature; I don't think there were too many Rastafarian Cabbalists or anysuch). As such, Rastafarians used the word "Zion" as their promised land, as many Bob Marley songs attest to.
There's a whole list of good candidates, which would only suffer the same obstacles to the translation as any other genre: too many plot threads, too long, they'd just screw it up, etc.
Personally, I thought Islands in the Net would make an excellent translation to the big screen. It's not as flashy-FX-laden as other stories, but offers plenty of opportunities to work in cyber [ghod I hate that term] elements in a plot that otherwise could have a lot of appeal to the non-SF fan.
OK, so it's just me. [shrug]
I can see the fnords!
Actually, there's a Museum of Bad Art...Works retrieved from the dumpsters outside of art schools, mostly. You can visit it here. I laughed so hard I nearly puked when I first came across it. :)
In the meantime, don't be so down on this guy. He tells you upfront that they are _early_ test sketches. Not final products.
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (Moving to MetaLab/UNC!)
Bowie J. Poag
I think another problem is the long, long passages in the book explaining the Sumerian folklore. It was interesting but a real drag on the plot (while being essential for it). It's hard for me to see how that would either translate to film, or how a film could leave out that information.
While we're on the topic, it might be of interest that a screenplay for Vernor Vinge's seminal work True Names was adapted as a screenplay last year and may eventually go into production sometime. (it's also finally getting republished)
Whether the adaption of "Snowcrash" comes to fruition or not, there is always that danger in adapting "cult" books like "Snowcrash" (OK, you might disagree with my loose use of cult, but you get the idea). The only way it will work is by somehow creating a perfect movie, because any way you do it, I can guarantee you're going to have a legion of pissed off fans of the book, angry at the adaption. "Johnny Mnemonic" anyone? (Yeah, it was a bad movie any way you look at it.....a bit of a loaded example).
Worst of all is adapting a sci-fi novel, as the image presented is _never_ going to match what people visualise by the text itself....What do _you_ think the Metaverse looks like? How about the Ringworld? Rama? (Yeah "Bladerunner" was an awesome adaption of "Do androids dream of electric sheep", but the novel was more about atmosphere anyway....and though a cool novel, it didn't quite have the status of "Snowcrash" at the time - feel free to disagree with me here).
Anyway, if the "Neuromancer" and "Snowcrash" projects end up coming to fruition, I hope they kick ass. Classic sci-fi films are generally thin on the ground.....
Cheers,
SuperG
The story is complex, the sets would have to be extremely expensive and/or digital ala Episode1,
the Uneducated Masses would think it was a rip-off of The Matrix...
If anything, that would doubly damn the Neuromancer film project, as The Matrix lifts most of the names from there (the Matrix itself, Zion (without the funky rasta back-story), &c.) Well, at least Neo (k3wl name d00d) and Trinity aren't named Case and Molly..
But another thing to consider is that large portions of the book are a thinly veiled jab at L Ron Hubbard (AKA L Bob Rife).
Other than the name I don't see much similarity. Hubbard's a pulp scifi author who founded a kooky religion on a bet, whereas Rife seems to be an industrialist who rode in on the middle-American Christian power base. They could always just call him Bob L. Rife or something if the scienos complain.
I think I speak for a lot of people when i say that a movie simply could NOT do Snow Crash justice.
There are too many constraints which would pull down the potential of the movie. Cost of course being one, but time is the most important one. There is TOO much going on in the novel to cram it into 2 hours (2.5? 3? 5? 10? still not enough).
If there was a movie adaptation of Snow Crash, I'd almost be afraid to see it. I'd be horribly scared to think of how much it would be butchered to fit the constraints of time and money...
If it has to be done, I just hope they do it as best that they can; but to me it still won't be as good as it could be.
According to the most excellent Corona Films' Coming Attractions page on Snow Crash.
"Nothing new has been reported about the development of the project, except for this one scoop we received: "The project is dead." With nothing new to report of in months the film may very well be trapped in limbo. [Scoop submitted anonymously.].
We'll see... stir up some interest!!!
When Stephenson began working on Snow Crash, he intended it to be a video game (super-interactive novel). Unfortunately, we're only getting to the point where that would be a plausibility. Or is that fortunately? If Ion Storm can succeed at Deus Ex, someone can succeed at Snow Crash...though Juanita's avatar tech is still a ways away (see Pixar's advances in this realm!)
Speaking of Pixar, it's always easier to fake tech in a movie; you get to pre-render everything. Snow Crash would make a great movie without too much trouble, because of its many high-octane visual elements. Also: the political/social satire that runs rampant is surprisingly easy to do visually: just show the Uncle Nunzio Pizza billboard and you're done.
Of course the movie would be radically different from the book, but it wouldn't be an insane adaptation like LotR--you just cut out the boring stuff, and you've got a whole bunch of cool action sequences. Stephenson's namshub mumbo-jumbo barely makes sense anyway (though it _nearly_ fits together quite neatly); the book could do with the bit of narrative tightening a movie would provide.
Snow Crash is hobbled by the importance of Juanita to the outcome of the book, and her near-complete absence from the book. A rewrite that dealt with the narrative problems caused by her would be welcome. My suspicion is the whole rewrite issue is what's killing this project: the book, while amazingly cool and smart and readable and one of my all-time favorite books, is seriously flawed by its tenuously connected plot threads.
Visually, the movie would be great in so many ways: the avatar world could be done anime-style, the Sumerian backstory (if it even entered) could be covered in a killer animation sequence like that from Todd McFarlane's Do the Evolution video, etc.
Stephenson deliberately drew on pop-culture ideas and imagery for the book, and took a lot from movies. Snow Crash could make a very good movie.
It probably would make a better computer game, but I'm not convinced we really have the tech for it.
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Make mine methylphenidate.
You can find a bit of background on Corona's Coming Attractions site... They started reporting on it back in 1996, though there are very few updates.
The only way I'd watch the movie is if they are faithful to the ending: all the characters appear on screen and say to each other "Well....I guess this is the end of the movie. I guess we'll just leave then."
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Linux MAPI Server!
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The story is complex, the sets would have to be extremely expensive and/or digital ala Episode1, the Uneducated Masses would think it was a rip-off of The Matrix...
But another thing to consider is that large portions of the book are a thinly veiled jab at L Ron Hubbard (AKA L Bob Rife).
The Scientologists are pretty powerful in Hollywood...How do you think John Travolta managed to make what looks to be the huge stinking turd of this year... Battlefield Earth?