Slashdot Mirror
Neuromancer Movie In Your Future?
An anonymous reader pointed out a link talking about how Vincenzo Natali, writer/director of Splice, has written a screenplay for Neuromancer. The article says he even ran it by Gibson. No studio is attached to the project, but at least Natali promised "No Keanu."
...from every year that Slashdot has been in existence.
srsly, who cares?
Having a guitar play Henry would be pretty awesome.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Do not try and appreciate the acting in the Matrix. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth: there IS no Keanu Reeves. He's a computer generated graphic.
Not every character in every story is Jesus Rambo.
Johnny Mnemonic was not supposed to be the second coming.
Case is no paragon either.
I have seen some of Vincenzo Natali's previous movies; Cube (very original), Cypher (cool SF thriller) and Nothing (funny and absurd fantasy). He is definitely an interesting director. But I have never heard of Splice. Is it worth tracking down a DVD of Splice?
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. --Niels Bohr
Oh, I know, they'll pay $200M to the Russians to take the actors and cameramen to the ISS.
Too bad we didn't finalize and build a follow on to the Shuttle 15 years ago.
mark
If someone saves the world using a floppy disk, I want to see it.
Unless of course, he plays the voice of the AI, which would be an entertaining twist.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Good for you, pal. I've been writing Phillip K. Dick screenplay adaptations for years, and that sonofabitch has YET to approve even ONE of them!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
that Vincenzo Natali is also the writer/director of Cube, an awesome move. Whereas Splice doesn't exactly look like it's going to be winning any awards (according to imdb, Cube won 13).
at least Natali promised 'No Keanu'.
EXCELLENT!!! *Air Guitar plays in the background*
Splice comes out June 4th.
Cool. Know any goot torrents of the film?
Ah, here ya go.
Instead, the role of Case will be played by Ben Affleck. Whoah!
That's what hating on Keanu gets you.
Edith Keeler Must Die
They talk about The Matrix being a more of a detriment to the making of more of these types movies. For me, The Matrix went downhill as soon as the reality behind the simulation was revealed. And after that point The Matrix devolved into a series of arbitrary rules that merely served as a framework for standard-issue last minute escapes and virtual fruit-cart tipping.
The Matrix doesn't kill the future for cyberspace movies, it only makes me long for a more satisfying version.
The problem is, "Neuromancer" was cutting edge in 1984. If they had made it into a movie within 10 years, they might have had a shot at succeeding, but now cyberpunk is mainstream and all the ideas that were new and different in Neuromancer have become cliché thanks to other films and TV shows introducing it in piecemeal fashion.
"Durr" has it right farther down the thread - "Neuromancer: The Movie" will look like it's just following in the footsteps of dated crappy cyberpunkish movies.
Writer/director Vincenzo Natali is responsible for several other SF-related films aside from the aforementioned Splice. most notably the cult classic Cube.
at least Natali promised 'No Keanu'.
EXCELLENT!!! *Air Guitar plays in the background*
Wyld Stallyns!!!!!!! totally awesome man!
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Speaking of horrible acting, PLEASE NO HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN!!!
The guy absolutely ruined Darth Vader (and Star Wars)
http://www.object404.com
The article says he even ran it by Gibson.
It does not, however, say that Gibson approved it.
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Dude, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Found this using google search: http://www.cinematical.com/2010/05/25/interview-vincenzo-natali-explains-how-to-crack-neuromancer/
Cinematical: What do you think is the key to cracking it for the big screen?
Natali: I think it always comes down to character. I think it's about understanding who Case is and getting his story down. I've read other drafts of the script and they've had good things in them, but they never seem to hold together. And I think part of the problem, and I believe William Gibson would agree with this, but the ending is, shall we say... somewhat ambiguous and not that well defined. In thinking about how I wanted to make the movie version of that book work, I had to start with the end, figure that out first and work backwards from there.
My take on it really is a story of redemption. Case, as a classic noir hero in a sense, is someone who at first appears to be completely in it for himself. He plumbs the depths of the cybernetic underworld and then comes out and reveals that there is more to him than we first thought. It all starts with him.
But I also think you can be quite faithful to the book. I think the movie can and should have a kind of literary structure to it, it shouldn't be a traditional film structure. I think we can have moments where we go into the past and digress. I'm sure one of the issues other writers have faced in writing the adaptation is that there's so much detail that you can get lost in it. I think you have to hone it down a little bit but also allow yourself to flashback to the Screaming Fist or tell Molly's story; just have a chapter in the movie that goes into the past. I think audiences are more than sophisticated enough to handle that.
That actually excites me, I like the idea of having it being a science fiction film but also having more of a highbrow structure to it.
The last time I check someone else owned the rights to Molly Millions, not Gibson (ie. Johnny Mnemonic's female protagonist an aptly named, "Jane"). Seems like a bad foot to start on.
Instead, the role of Case will be played by Ben Affleck.
Really? I heard it was going to be Will Smith.
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
I'm ok with this as long as Michael Bay and George Lucas have nothing to do with it.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
The problem with Neuromancer is that a lot of the scenery and the backdrop itself is based on a pre-Tokyo exchange crash economy, in which everyone just assumed Japan would rule the world soon(ish). The whole feel of the story would be lost, I think now that the parts that could, have already come true, and the parts that haven't come true never will.
Snowcrash has a much better shot, since it pretty much assumed corporations (masquerading around as governments, churches, and media companies) will eventually take over everything. The backdrop still works.
Stephenson's Metaverse is a candied playground populated by everyone, ruled by the technological elite and the corporations who hire them, a safe place to which we see the very first danger unleashed. Gibson's cyberspace is a wild frontier rife with danger, populated exclusively by the technological elite cowboys, who risk life and sanity every day. In the modern real life, Internet access is pervasive and a wide audience will accept "OMG this thing we all do IS dangerous, people could get a computer virus!!!" but you will find a hard sell on "you know that cool web-surfing thing, well these guys nearly die doing it, and that is why they are badass, and Case, well, he almost dies a lot." huh???
Everything ever published has at least one screenplay based on it.
Seriously. If there aren't half a dozen screenplays floating around Hollywood based on the grafitti at Central Station, I'll eat my socks. Its not worth fussing over. The fact the the movie rights to something have been bought is equally unworthy of notice; they regularly buy up rights to things that might possibly one day seem like a good idea, or even just buy up the rights to things that they think would compete against something they have in production, just to keep someone else from using it.
Now when you hear that they've hired some cameramen and actors and are starting production, _then_ you can get excited (or horrified, or whatever your reaction to hearing that one of your favorite tales is about to be Hollywoodized is.)
Now now. Will Smith acts in many bad movies (and a few good ones), but he isn't a bad actor in general. Ben Affleck and Keanu Reeves are a totally different story.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Ben Affleck is a much better actor than Reeves. Of course, so's the guy who told me he needed $5 for gas so he could drive his car back home...
I seriously think Johnny Mnemonic would have been pretty good if we didn't have to watch Reeves trying to show emotion. That was painful.
In my Neuromancer movie fantasy, it's anime (even if it's not made in Japan), with Daniel Clowes in charge of character design.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
i dont want some super-serious "oscar" contender with a pedigree. i want the 'tude. it should be scrappy. half of the enjoyment of film should be its "look". eye-candy all the way. i dont care if its written badly, acted badly, or whatever. as long is it LOOKS SWEET. the book was never about the dialogue or the "plot". it was always about the 'tude. in the writing. in the characters. in the plot. etc. that 'tude should permeate through the entire film.
Woah!
Let's be clear... LUCAS ruined it. He did a great job when he was just ripping off Norse myth (and didn't even bother to change most of the names, Luke, Leia, Anakin, Skywalker, Tatooine... all right out of the original Norse), but when he had to actually make up his own content you got Midi-chlorians ...
Watch Jumpers, Christensen did a very good job in that.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
Your .sig is brilliant.
This is wholly off topic, but it had to be said.
Wait, hadn't Gibson already written a screenplay for Neuromancer. Last I had heard he was waiting for technology to catch up to his vision.
Hollywood will probably do an unbelievably shitty job. It will just be like all the other drivel they make - dumbed down for the masses, filled with fake-looking CG special effects, and T&A.
Will Smith isn't a bad actor?
So... Which Earth is this? 2? 3? 75? Pick any 4 Will Smith movies and he'll be passable *at best* in 2 of them, and playing a wise-cracking jackass in 3 of them. And if you really want to destroy your opinion of Will Smith, watch Shark Tale.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
...still want a Neuromancer movie?
Not sure how well some the visuals of the novel will translate to the movie, fear the same kind of visual effects that they use to represent the "virtual" world that plagued movies since Tron and maybe earlier. If i have to choose a sci-fi movie for translating the visuals to movie, probably would pick Hyperion (at least the "virtual" experience is pictured in the same way in the novel, and the Shrike should put any movie monster from Alien to date into shame) and maybe in a second place Ender's Game (children in no gravity fight? have a lot of potential for good and evil)
If they found out after 25 years, that Gibson is good enough to make a film, why don't they use some of the later books? Like "Idoru" or "Pattern Recognition"? While I liked "Neuromancer", characters, plot and language in his later books where far more developed.
I can appreciate Cube, but this is not the guy to do Neuromancer. I mean, yeah, Neuromancer is a little cheezy too at parts, but it is a seminal work, far, far beyond anything Natali has done as far as foresight and depth writing-wise. Take away the unique aesthetics of Cube and it's just another WTF-is-going-on-style horror movie -- it's strength is not so much the script. Neuromancer deserves better treatment. I hope this attempt fails like all the other film attempts because I'd rather see no film than a mediocre one. Perhaps going against some of my argument, I'd like to see Shane Carruth who made Primer take a whack at Neuromancer.
Wasn't he supposed to have like virtually no personality and just stair blankly when he isn't talking? Never mind, still too demanding a role.
Nah, Shia Lebouf is the new Keanu.
...still want a Neuromancer movie?
I think Neuromancer in David Lynch's hands would be quite good. Imagine him handling the Molly-Peter interactions, esp the state performance? Surreal.
Stephenson's Metaverse is like Facebook, while Gibson's Matrix is like chatroulette?
Yeah, I'm basically with you. He was good in Enemy of the State, but in too many other of his movies (e.g., I, Robot) he just plays... Will Smith. So if you need a good guy with a swagger, I guess you can typecast him, but that's not really acting...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer#Film_projects http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2007_05_01_archive.asp says: "I'VE FORGOTTEN MORE NEUROMANCER FILM DEALS THAN YOU'VE EVER HEARD OF ... As the old saying goes, I'll believe it when I see it."
A few of the more dated aspects of Neuromancer could be easily adjusted to suit the global situation today, i.e. Japanese corporations having such a massive presence. I'm also not concerned with the film adaptation, assuming they have competent writers. The problem is that too many movie producers seem to suffer from this idiotic obsession of cramming in as many scenes from the book as they possibly can. So you end up with what basically comes off like summary of the book. Dune is a great example of this. Watch that movie without having read the book and you wont have a clue what is going on.
My primary, concern, beyond the general dumbing down of the novel, is the tone. The novel depicted a gritty, decaying world. It's somewhat consistent with the depiction of urban environments seen in other novels and movies of the era. It might have been taken to an absurd degree at times, but I do think it's more convincing than what is found in sci-fi movies today. Sci-fi movies nowadays vacillate between these sickeningly pristine unblemished utopias or comically pseudo-apocalyptic monochromatic devastation. And with either approach too many movies nowadays have this artificial patina to them. The effects are more amazing than every before, and it's pretty much possible to depict anything we can imagine, and yet they're incapable or unwilling to just make a scene feel natural. There's too much of a fixation on the material. Gadgets are used with great fanfare. And vistas don't simply establish setting, but are there to remind us of how awesome this world supposedly is.
Of course the biggest threat of all is that Neuromancer is turned into a stupid action movie with a lame overwrought romance to appeal to a wider audience. That said, I'm looking forward to a movie adaptation, but my expectations are very low.
Casey Affleck would be better
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
i thought i was the only one who had seen that movie. lol.
to try to capture "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Good luck with that.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
The way to make this is to crowd source it, like with Star Wars Uncut. Apply 2010s social networking technology to 1980s sci-fi. Make sure the aesthetic is true to the 80s if you can - pixels aplenty, 320x240, and of course, extra credit for making your scene on an Amiga. Or at least LOOK like it.
-- Real Stupidity is the Artificial Intelligence of the 21st century
*STHNRABITEL...
No, it's the Sith & Rabbit Telephone Company. The rabbit appears to bring the speed of communication for marketing and the Sith, well I guess billing, customer service, corporate relations and government lobbying would be a bit obvious huh?
Hmmm... never mind. This is what they all are anyways.
Paleofuturistic. Make it look like '70s FS, pretend that future envisioned in 1984 actually came to pass, and run with it.
Trying to reconcile NM with modern events and technology would place it at the intersection of Hollywood and Wrong.
(To this day, I refuse to watch "Johnny Mnemonic". It was in the first Omni magazine I ever bought FFS. Just...no. No.)
And just what difference does a new screenplay make? It's not like we didn't have Neuromancer screenplays before. Just check out the one at scifiscripts, written by none other than William Gibson himself.
Over the decades, we had many attempts to bring Neuromancer to the big screen. I remember the hype ten years ago, when Chris Cunningham was supposed to direct. Then another two years ago, in which Hayden Christensen was supposed to play Case. Both were aborted, and probably it's better this way. Even now there is a Neuromancer entry under IMDb, due to come out in 2011. Don't hold your breath on this one, either.
My guess is that major studios have realized that the mainstream interest in cyberpunk is gone, and view such a project too risky. That some individuals still like to play with the idea, is unlikely to change anything.
his neuromancer album is one of his best. but it's about as dated as the neuromancer novel (which is still one of my favorites)
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
IMHO, Ben Affleck isn't half bad when he's behind the camera, and Casey's definitely the better actor.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
> No studio is attached to the project, but at least Natali promised 'No Keanu'.
Thank God!
And really, of all directors left after Kubrick died, I think Natali is one of the very few qualified to do the job. Cube was one of the best films of the 90's, and one of the best science fiction films of the last twenty years.
And I really hope that he follows William Gibson's advice.
"When in doubt, use brute force." Ken Thompson