Joe Cornish To Write and Direct Snow Crash Movie

SomePgmr tips this quote from Geek.com: "Fans of the cyberpunk novel Snow Crash have reason to rejoice today, as it's been announced that the film adaptation of Neal Stephenson's classic has been revived once again, this time with an exciting writer and director at the helm in the form of Joe Cornish. Cornish is known for his recent sci-fi alien invasion flick Attack the Block, which was filmed and released in the UK by the same studio that put out Shaun of the Dead. Cornish's first film came to the U.S. in a limited release in 2011 and did well enough that Paramount took notice and pursued Cornish for the Snow Crash project."

Comments

new ending?

[cthlptlk]

Is Stephenson going to write a new ending for the movie? As I recall the book didn't really have one in the first place.

Re:new ending?

[RMingin]

To build on the AC who beat me to it, they should introduce the Rat Thing as a machine, and not at all make it look dog-like, but have a series of flashbacks when it realizes Hiro is in trouble, having a younger-but-recognizable-Hiro playing with the dog, the dog remembering being kidnapped, remembers a flash of machines in a lab, Robocop-style, flashes back again to the boy-Hiro, calling him. Rat Thing blasts through wall, maybe barking in a techo-distorted fashion, and begins terminal acceleration. You can throw in a variable number of flashbacks from dog POV, running towards the boy, intercutting with shots of Rat Thing going multi-Mach on the highway, to make it even clearer. As the Rat Thing hits the fuel tank, have a slow-mo of it starting to fly apart from the impact, intercut with scenes of the boy and the dog, falling down, laughing and rolling around.

No sweat. I could do it myself. It's all CGI, so it's infinitely malleable.

I just want to cry a little for the Rat Thing at the movie, like I did when I read the book. Best unexpected tragic hero figure in years.

Hollywood, call me. I remember how really good movies worked, and can help you remember.

Re:new ending?

[netsavior]

it was YT's dog. But yeah, same general rules apply, and I would love to get misty for a dog robot thing who sacrifices his life because once a girl fed him when he was abused and starving.

Dwayne Johnson as Raven.

[AuralityKev]

If they don't cast The Rock as Raven I will be very disappointed. And still see it opening night.

If he's allowed free reign...

[Vulch]

This could be very good. Joe Cornish appears in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (OK, in Shaun it's as "uncredited zombie") and seems to have much the same interests and outlook on life as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

I can see The Deliverators run being done as a Bond style pre-credits sequence and being awesome...

Whelp

[squidflakes]

Seeing as how screenplays for Snow Crash have been kicking around almost as long as the book itself, I'm amazed it finally got picked up. Still, I don't have high hopes. What made the book great for me were the odd turns of phrase, the staccato pacing, and the entirely correct number of giant penis avatars wandering around The Street.

How are they going to represent Vitaly Chernobyl's Nuclear Fuzz Grunge? Are we going to get the glorious Nipponese rap styling of Sushi-K?

How much in the future will this take place? Are they going to whitewash Hiro?

Obviously, these are all rhetorical and after what Disney did to John Carter of Mars... well.

Re:Whelp

[BetterSense]

I have always felt that a Snow Crash motion picture would have to me animated. It's too cartoonish to be live action.

Re:Whelp

[firewrought]

Seeing as how screenplays for Snow Crash have been kicking around almost as long as the book itself, I'm amazed it finally got picked up. Still, I don't have high hopes.

Perhaps Stephenson's depiction of a hyper-privatized society struggling with disruptive technologies, unpredictable religious groups, and the complete usurpation of rational discourse (all while a marginalized federal government steeps ineffectually in its own paranoia) has never been more applicable to current events. The text is ripe for exploiting (and commenting on) the current political zeitgeist...