Gibson must be feeling rather ill about this.

Adapting Neuromancer to the screen is going to be a huge challenge and extremely easy to screw up. Am I wrong?

Pattern Recognition, however, I can see as a movie.

I hate Hayden Christiansen. I want to kill him and eat his brain.

I don't like him, I mean.

Hayden Christensen in Neuromancer is best summed up by the now-legendary meme from another Hayden Christensen movie:

DO NOT WANT!

@WickedGlee: I'd say you're not wrong. It is certainly a more difficult project, and with Christensen attached, it's already heading the wrong way.

never really been much of a William Gibson fan...all I hope for is a new way of visualizing "cyberspace" - it's never been done well...all those bright tubes, zooming through environments that look like skyscrapers but are actually (gee wow!) poor representations of circut boards...VR is always glitchy and cheap looking...
I realize it's hard to visualize this stuff...but there has to be something better than > [www.acceleratingfuture.com]

@braak: You can do that, if you do there's a risk you could inherit his power of completely sapping any and all emotional chemistry from any and all situations.

The studios must be aware that nobody liked Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars movies, right? So why is he getting starring roles in sci-fi flicks? Is it just name recognition? Or some terribly mistaken calculation that, since the Star Wars movies made money, Hayden Christensen must be part of the formula?

Peter Weir, on the other hand, has already had one success (I'd argue) with a near-future/alternate present work extrapolating currently troubling social trends. And I liked Pattern Recognition better than Neuromancer anyway.

@tetracycloide: I would be like a black hole of human interaction, a vast pit that devours all feeling!

Inconvenient!

On the other hand: brains are tasty.

Neuromancer is a cornerstone of cyberpunk. This movie needs to be stopped before it starts. How Christensen keeps getting work I do not understand. What's next, Gary Coleman as Jesus in Passion of The Christ II: What You Talkin Bout Judas?

I may be flayed alive here, but I'm not a big Gibson fan. Besides, even if I were, I'd be afraid the movie would get the Bicentennial Man treatment.... *shudder*

Peter Weir rocks. Good news I say. Cept for the other half of it.

Nothing better than a huge challenge starring a huge challenge.

You all can bitch and whine about The Man Who Would Be Sith Lord being in Neuromancer; Keanu Reeves was in Johnny Mnemonic and look how well that turned out.

@NefariousNewt: I love Gibson's work, but there isn't an author alive who deserves what poor Isaac's work had done to it.

An SVU detective would throw up from seeing the rape that was forced upon Asimov's good name.

I read "Neuromancer" (mainly because it was a major part of the inspiration for Shadowrun), and I got a very "meh" feeling from it.

That said, I just can't see Young Vader here playing the main character in Neuromancer.

Just that synopsis is enough to set my teeth on edge. If they name the AI neuromancer, I'm going to be irritated. If they change "Case" to "Cage" and that isn't a typo, I'm going to vomit.

I didn't really enjoy Pattern Recognition. Well, no, I enjoyed it, but didn't really enjoy the ending that much. The books mystery seemed bland to me.

According to that Production Charts website, it lists Gibson as "Writer" for the Neuromancer film. Does that mean he's writing the screenplay too? Interesting.

Granted, that site says Christensen will star as "Cage" (lol!) so what-the-fuck do they know?

Actually, I would vote for Gibson's newest novel, Spook Country, over Pattern Recognition (though I did like Pattern Recognition very much). And I think the horrendous Johnny Mnemonic showed us why none of Gibson's cyberpunk novels translate well to the silver screen.

@Danilo Campos: The problem with Pattern Recognition's ending was that, as it turned out, she never was in any danger, really. It was all paranoia and misunderstanding. I felt let down and a bit cheated in the end.

Still, I just love the way Gibson writes.

goddamned travesty. goddamned...just...god. damn.

Liked Pattern Recognition, was all right with Neuromancer. Not AT ALL OK with Hayden attached in ANY way to a Gibson project. gag.

oooh! I love Weir's movies. Truman Show and Master and commander are completely underrated in my book.

David Arata is a good writer too, shouldn't do too bad with the adaptation.

@zenpoet:
Speaking of Asmovian rape, I present "I, Robot" with Will Smith.

This will all end in tears.

And, BTW, why hasn't anyone mined the original cyberpunk, Alfred Bester? I'd give a lot to see the "Demolished Man" on film. Not with any sithlords or the amazingly wooden Natalie Portman playing Barbara D'Courtney, please. I'd have to have a psychotic killing spree, and that would be sad.

A case can be made that Bladerunner was the first cyberpunk movie.

I'd rather watch Bill and Ted III than another movie with Hayden in it.

Someone already said DO NOT WANT, so I'll just have to chime in with my actual, literal first thought:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I didn't like the movie version of Johnny M. either. Disaffected and jaundiced youth != bland, wooden, non-reacting "actors". Cast someone who can at least pretend to look smart.

Wow... this is mostly crappy news... I agree with most of the posts, Neuromancer is DOA. Pattern Recognition might not totally suck... but I fear Neuromancer is going to make us think of Johnny Mnemonic as a classic of superb cinema.

Pattern Recognition is incredibly less science fiction than Neuromancer. Pattern Recognition is speculative science fiction of a time about eight months in the past.

I agree with TETRACYCLOIDE.: "You can do that, if you do there's a risk you could inherit his power of completely sapping any and all emotional chemistry from any and all situations."

Perfect. Not only was Hayden completely unable to feign the slightest bit of desire for Natalie Portman, he could barely even look at her. This is the love that would have him betray everything, slaughter children, and become Darth Vader? Sure. After Lucas's brilliant casting in THX-1138, American Graffiti and, even, the original Star Wars trilogy, Hayden was a particularly sore spot on a set of prequels that had a good number of sore spots.

Is Gibson hiring? I could be Christensen's understudy.

I guess I'm going to become the Hayden Christensen apologist around here... odd considering I don't really have that much affinity for him.

I agree, he's terrible in the Star Wars prequels. But George Lucas is to blame for that. Lucas is an awful director, and perhaps his biggest fault is that he can't direct actors. That's evident all the way back to the first Star Wars film.

But Christensen is pretty decent in other films he's appeared in. He's phenomenal in Shattered Glass. And he got great reviews for Life as a House (I haven't seen it myself).

My interest is piqued only to know who will be playing Molly...and what will she be wearing?

Gibson himself from May of 2007 on both Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition film adaptations:

[www.williamgibsonbooks.com]

So is Weir back? Or are the sources scrambled somehow?

it is unfortunate events like these that make me lose respect for a favored author. i love gibson's work. and, while i don't consider his works absolute in sci-fi, they're certainly on the top of my list. i've read both trilogies numerous times. when i'm bored and can't find a current release to read, i always go back to his books.

if gibson is directly related to this, and or, party to the piece of shit it will spawn...i will be sad.

to not care about your own creation enough to see an experienced director and a decent cast put to it makes me uninterested in reading any future work.

christensen is a block of wood. he couldn't 'act' the part in a home movie about himself.

wtf, gibson?

Did anyone see the film adaptation of New Rose Hotel (Gibson short story, in Burning Chrome)? If you haven't, look it up on imdb, think "big name actors, might be ok", then take my advice : stay far, far away from it.

Great story, not long enough to make a full-length film out of, and it shows. The last 30 mins were flashbacks to the first 30. Terrible stuff, and was my fav story in BC.

I'm going to defend that Kahn guy by pointing out that he's directed one piece of fantastic science fiction: the video for Muse's single "Knights Of Cydonia".

Plus, I think there was a little knowingness in the way TORQUE exceeded its genre limitations. Anyway, most directors have to hack one or two out for the studios before they get a shot at doing anything decent. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. For now.

I hope that image isn't something made recently, or at least not by the same people making the movie. If so, even as a mock-up of some sort, well... I know Neuromancer was written in the 80s. But we're in 2008 here, people. Photoshop can do better than that!

@kfunque: Sorry, that crappy photoshop image was all me.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I have no problem with Hayden Christensen. I think the Star Wars prequels had more problems than this guy deserves blame for. I liked him in the movie Shattered Glass and his new movie, Jumper, looks interesting. I'm more worried about putting a guy who's only previous work can best be described as "Fast and the Furious on bikes."

I didn't picture Neuromancer as being that angsty when I originally read it.

I can't decide if it'll be worse than Johnny Mnemonic.

Reason #1 not to be upset: I doubt the Neuromancer movie will happen. This is the third or fourth time I've seen notice that the movie is officially in development.

Reason #2: Nothing can spoil my love for the book. The audio book is actually pretty great - Gibson reads, and there's some incidental music by U2.

If Hollywood had anyskill at trend watching, they'd go for an adaptation The Difference Engine. Steampunk and all that. Though ti might sound like a horrible idea to some, I'd suggest James Cameron for the script. I liked what he did with The Abyss.

Can they get someone grittier to play Case? I hear Pete Doherty is available!

I have a huge love/hate relationship with the idea of a Neuromancer film adaptation. How can they capture Cyberspace as Gibson visualized it in the 80's without looking like the arcade game "Tempest"? Can this unknown director capture the chilling suspense in the scene where each individual payphone rings once as Case is led away by the AI squad?

I'd pay to see Hayden Christensen as Ratz. Seems like the perfect role for him in Neuromancer. Maybe he'd be able to pull off Armitage. But, please, please, not Case.

@Victheremin: A good big screen adaptation of Bester is long overdue; as long as it's not "Golem^100". "Tiger, Tiger" or "Demolished Man" would be stellar.

Christensen was really good in Shattered Glass. And between this and Jumper, he's got good taste in novel adaptations!

I had always wished that Gibson novels would be done as Anime by IG (Ghost in the Shell). Sadly I am sure that this will go horribly wrong but hope that I will be surprised. Hayden's performance in the Star Wars movies could be due to bad Direction (Lucas) and maybe this will turn out ok.

Yeah, they really shouldn't bother on Neuromancer. I can't see any movie really handling the complexity of the end of the novel without totally bungling it or turning the whole thing into a crappy action flick. One of the main strengths of Neuromancer is the abstract nature of some of the visuals. To see cyberspace, Freeside, the beach, or pretty much any setting given the standard Hollywood cliche treatment will be disappointing to anyone who has read the book and at best confusing to anyone who hasn't.

there's hope for pattern recognition if the budget's kept low, but dear god, on a scale of one to wooden HC beats even Clive Owen, and if torque is anything to go by we're just going to get bad, bad, mtv-styled rubbish from a movie that once had Chris Cunningham attached s director and co-scripter...I'm disgusted, I'd rather see it never be made than this incarnation. Johnny Mnemonic, though a guilty pleasure of mine, is gonna look like Citizen Kane by comparison.

According to Gibson, when I interviewed him a few months ago, the Weir interview was absolutely dead in the water. So I don't know if this is old news or not.

Gibson's had trouble with renaming characters before, with Molly / Jane / Sally in the Johnny Mnemonic and the Sprawl trilogy. Maybe that's the Case/Cage thing?

I'm willing to give Anakin the benefit of the doubt. Also, Case is supposed to have a damaged nervous system and he's a hacker, so perhaps a flat affect is what the character needs....

Neuromancer is a difficult choice... I think that Virtual Light would translate better to screen. Pattern Recognition is an excellent choice; the filmmakers hardly have to stretch past realism. Neat to see this right now, too, I just finished Pattern Recognition yesterday.

I don't like the idea of Christianson playing Case either..but you never know, it may all work out. Who would have cast Keanu in a cyberpunk story after the Johnny Mnemonic flop? But he went on to do The Matrix.

As someone above mentioned, I don't know how they will visualize cyberspace. It wasn't done very well in either Johnny Mnemonic or Hackers. Gibson's text in the book is all about virtual skyscrapers and the like though, but maybe they can just create something entirely new for the movie.

I very much enjoyed Pattern Recognition - I've read it 2 or 3 times now and still enjoy it. There were a lot of interesting things in Pattern Recognition you could Google for afterward like the Curta and Bibendum. I feel he was off his game in Spook Country and it kinda bored me.

ps, part of the pic above looks made up from the splash screen for the Neuromancer Commodore 64 game from the 80s.

go to joseph kahn's site and watch his collection of music videos (hes right up there w/ cunningham/gondry/etc.). then read his interview about torque. the guy's going to make a fucking awesome film.

@dinergy - since when did any author have input into the maiming of film "adaptations" of their books? They have more influence over their cover art (ie. none).

@hiro_protagonist: yeah, actually, good point. Keanu was a good choice for Johnny Mnemonic I thought, purely because of the flatness. Who knows, it'd be nice if it surprises.

As for pattern recognition, that could work well with nice washed-out tones and a little bit of grit to it. I liked the fact you could google a lot of the stuff in it too, like the buzz rickson's jacket (they later produced a version just like the one in the book). I also strongly suspect one of the characters was based on Chris Cunningham and liked that a lot of real-world locations, places I know, were in it. One of his best.

@braak: Could not agree more.
I'm horrified.

really is it any worse than casting Keanu as johnny Mnemonic.