http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037220/

 

Neuromancer, William Gibson's thoroughly unadaptable seminal cyberpunk classic, is being threatened with yet another movie adaptation. You may recognize my avatar as one of the multitude of awful looking Neuromancer book covers.

 

The latest adaptation attempt (many have failed in the past) is by a no name director with a single feature film to his credit: Torque. I have not seen Torque, but judging from its critical reception there's not a lot to hope for.

 

They've cast Hayden Christensen as the lead role, the down-and-out Case the Console Cowboy, who is presented with the opportunity to resume his status as one of cyberspace's premiere ICE breakers, so long as he can help a mysterious "individual" named Wintermute.

 

Given Hayden Christensen's <sarcasm>excellent</sarcasm> performance as Anakin Skywaker in movies like Star Wars: Return of the Clones, I have <sarcasm>absolutely zero qualms he can pull off</sarcasm> the role of Case the Console Cowboy.

*sigh* Hollywood really need to leave books alone

Given Hayden Christensen's <sarcasm>excellent</sarcasm> performance as Anakin Skywaker in movies like Star Wars: Return of the Clones, I have <sarcasm>absolutely zero qualms he can pull off</sarcasm> the role of Case the Console Cowboy.

 

Thanks for prompting within me a rather vigorous belly laugh, Bascule.

Agreed! Post of the week, for sure, not just for the "threatened by another movie adaptation" bit but also for the Hayden Christensen tirade -- he's being similarly lambasted right now for "Jumper" (though in fairness I did like him in Shattered Glass). Thanks for the chuckle.

 

They should pick a different Gibson novel. Some of them strike me as quite adaptable. I recently enjoyed Pattern Recognition, which I think would play very well on the big screen.

The book in the same vein as Neuromancer I'd like to see adapted into a movie is Snow Crash. The entire book practically reads like a screenplay. Compare that to Neuromancer, which is written in the quintessential ultradescriptive style of cyberpunk.

 

"The sky above the port was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel"

 

^^^ how the hell do you translate quotes like that into scenes in a movie?