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Apple TV+ to adapt William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer
- dacox 4y agoMight have to consider Apple TV+ and cancel...something
- boplicity 4y agoJust rotate through all of the services one at a time -- switch every 3 months or so, and you'll be rewarded with lots of fresh content. It also saves you a lot of money! (You get to watch everything from Disney/Netflix/Etc for 1/3rd of the cost.)
- pmastela 4y agoI wouldn’t mind paying for a service to auto manage cancelations and renewals of streaming services.
- criddell 4y agoThis is why I try to subscribe to everything via my iPhone. I can go into the subscription page of settings and with one tap start or stop any of the services I've subscribed to through there. Even if I have to pay more than going direct, the convenience is worth it to me.
- lmedinas 4y agohopefully it will not be heavily censored and ended up being extreme boring.
- aaronbrethorst 4y agoYou're really missing out if you haven't watched "Severance" and "For All Mankind".
- chx 4y agoI recommend cancelling Netflix because they cancelled Warrior Nun.
- rgovostes 4y agoHopefully the team that brought us “Foundation” has nothing to do with it. Their adaptation is unrecognizable.
- Bud 4y agoTo be fair, it was almost required to be unrecognizable. The original novels consist mostly of two people in a room, alone, talking to each other. Not exactly workable for a major TV series.
- stevenwoo 4y agoPrelude to Foundation is almost a novel length chase scene.
- dmix 4y agoYeah the book was pretty abstract, a narrator/exposition driven story which doesn't translate well. Not a lot of content for building set pieces and action.
- xsmasher 4y agoThe original "Foundation" novel is a set of short stories that take place decades or more apart, and barely share characters. The second novel is more unified but has a 100-year gap in the middle. They would have been an interesting "tales of" anthology series, but not a great narrative series.
- wiredfool 4y agoI loved the Foundation series when I was younger, until the fourth book or after it just got draggy and dull. Rereading it though, there are bits of brilliance in a sea of cigar smoke and 50’s atomic futurism. The suck fairy hit it pretty hard.
- pantalaimon 4y agoIt gets dull when that mule character appears, that supernatural twist just didn’t fit the rest of the story IMHO.
- karaterobot 4y agoI'm mumbling into the abyss here, but it would be better if somebody wrote a new story as good as Neuromancer was and developed that into a show instead. There are talented and creative people out there who could imagine new things rather than spending their careers working on existing IP because it's believed to be a safer marketing strategy. Believing that only sequels, remakes, and adaptations are safe is ironic, because at some point all of the things you think you have to remake were new, unproven ideas.
- Apocryphon 4y agoTotally understandable. Star Wars might have been created only because Lucas couldn't get the rights to adapt Flash Gordon. Spielberg signed on to Indiana Jones after Lucas told him he had a better idea than simply making a James Bond movie.
- pantalaimon 4y agoI thought Star Wars took many elements from Foundation
- Apocryphon 4y agoStar Wars took many elements from everything, but his core motivation was to make a 'space opera' influenced by the serialized sci-fi adventures of his youth- Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.
- fullshark 4y agoAnd Indiana Jones was basically updated adventure serials. The ideas of both were not that original, but the execution was ground breaking. I was also just thinking about how pretty much every blockbuster these days is made as the Phantom Menace was: greensceen, digital backgrounds, digital characters, episodic. The guy basically crafted the blueprint for 50 years of hollywood blockbuster films, especially if you consider his effects work contributions. And he's been mocked and reviled on the internet now for what 20 years?
- dmix 4y agoAmazon is also making a Warhammer 40k series: https://www.ign.com/articles/warhammer-40000-amazon-studios-henry-cavill https://www.ign.com/articles/warhammer-40000-amazon-studios-... Henry Cavill is apparently a fan is helping make it.
- ar_lan 4y agoWith the trajectory of his career he probably won't be involved in a month, unfortunately.
- dmix 4y agoWhy do you say that? I don't follow celebrity news.
- nickthegreek 4y agoHe left Witcher to to more Superman, but then James Gunn took over DC and scrapped that. But this is exactly what Cavil needed, a big show that he is also super excited about. Cavil plays warhammer as a hobby and is passionate about it.
- MikusR 4y agoHe was fired from Superman and quit The Witcher (because the writers on the show literally hate the books).
- terramex 4y agoHe recently left The Witcher to play Superman again but just two weeks later studio changed their mind and announced he will not be playing Superman anymore. With WH40k series he will be on production team so it is less likely he will get dropped again.
- discardedrefuse 4y agoCavil is now executive producer of the Warhammer Cinematic Universe. So I'm pretty sure he will be involved. Besides that, his career seems fine. Guy Ritchie just signed him for a WW2 action film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
- qbasic_forever 4y agoVery cool, I was watching Johnny Mnemonic recently and lamenting that Gibson's stories have never really been given a fair chance on film/tv. Mnemonic is worth a rewatch and IMHO has actually improved with age now that you can look back at some of the effects and such as retro 90s nostalgia. I'm looking forward to see what Apple does for Neuromancer.
- criddell 4y agoHave you had a chance to watch The Peripheral yet? If so, any opinions?
- relwin 4y agoRead the book a few years ago, then watched the series. Doesn't quite follow the book but is entertaining anyway. You also have to pay attention as not everything is explained right away. The series 1 ending is a bit confusing. The only complaint I have is the actors' accents may cause you to turn on CC at times.
- VectorLock 4y agoA few months ago they came out with a black and white recut of Johnny Mnemonic. Around that time I was rewatching it and what hit me like a brick was this is what the movie's depiction (released in 1995) of what Beijing in 2021 would look like: https://i.imgur.com/WZY6hjf.png https://i.imgur.com/WZY6hjf.png
- qbasic_forever 4y agoYep the movie is strangely prophetic. To be fair though I remember hearing people talk about the risk of airborne virus pandemics since the 90s. One thing they got squarely wrong were cybernetic dolphins being used to crack decryption LOL.
- aidenn0 4y agoYeah, GPUs seem to have displaced dolphins for so many computational tasks.
- VikingCoder 4y agoPleasepleaseplease someone make "Daemon" and "Freedom™" by Daniel Suarez. And also "The Golden Age" by John C. Wright. Oh, and the Honor Harrington series. I mean, hell, I'll take the "Oath of Swords" series. Why NOT make that? And pleasepleaseplease make a mini-series (NOT A MOVIE) out of "Project Hail Mary." Actually, yeah, these are all series, not movies. Pleasepleaseplease.
- jandrese 4y agoProject Hail Mary already has a film adaptation in progress.
- VikingCoder 4y agoIf it's 9 hours long, I'm in. Oh yeah, I remember he announced who's playing Rocky: https://twitter.com/andyweirauthor/status/1509969004781203457 https://twitter.com/andyweirauthor/status/150996900478120345...
- celestialcheese 4y agoLook at the date ;)
- VikingCoder 4y agoEmma Stone with pouty lips: "Bad bad bad."
- volkk 4y agonot sure if this is furthering of the joke, but this was an april fool's post
- jandrese 4y agoHonestly, I'm not sure a super long adaptation is necessary for Project Hail Mary. I could see all of the major beats getting done in about 2 hours or so. There are chapters with fairly long descriptions of the experiments that could be summed up in just a few seconds of screentime. People who want to see the math can read the book. Part of making a good movie adaptation is realizing that film and print are different media and a fully faithful direct translation rarely works very well. The movie ends up bloated and overly exposition heavy, sometimes forgetting that the audience can see what is going on.
- jguimont 4y agoIsn't the Peripheral on Amazon Prime based on a Gibson story too? https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0PE2SANXUROCEZ5W2FD7WGMM9R https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0PE2SANXUROCEZ5W2FD7WGMM9R
- aaronbrethorst 4y agoyes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral
- glenstein 4y agoYeah, and I came here to mention this, as I tried to watch it and got 4-5 episodes in before giving up. Some of it was really frickin cool, and you can even feel some of William Gibson voice shine through into the world. I probably want this to work more than anybody, but even for me the show was just unwatchable. So often the characters get nothing to do, nothing to say, it's nobody's job to create narrative momentum. It's just brutal. That said, I'm still not deterred from wanting to watch necromancer just because I want that type of show to work. A show where technology isn't just window dressing, and there's real curiosity about how it impacts the world, and there's real imagination about how to extract original and interesting visual aesthetics from it.
- trevor-e 4y agoI'll offer an opposing viewpoint that the show was totally watchable and not "brutal" for me. Some of the acting/story was a bit over the top, but overall still a pretty good show and interesting idea. I've read Neuromancer but wouldn't say I'm a William Gibson expert/fan, so maybe the show is more appealing to the average viewer like me.
- _zoltan_ 4y agoPeripheral (the TV series) is awesome. Easily the best TV show I've seen this year.
- foobarbecue 4y ago
- Paul_S 4y agoNot the best time to be turned into a tv show but some books end up being filmed many times so maybe no harm here. I hope they don't update the setting and keep it retro future.
- RDaneel0livaw 4y agoI don't know ... Neuromancer is amazing and groundbreaking. Will they do it justice? Having the show creator being most known for writing on Lost is .................. not inspiring to say the least. Plus the adaptation on Apple TV+ of Foundation was god awful. I'm not holding out much hope for this one. Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised.
- ThaDood 4y agoIIRC Gibson stated that Neuromancer is basically "un-movieable". I love the book and the rest of the Sprawl series but man. Neuromancer is a SUPER busy book with a lot going on. And I just think in today's world it would be hard to really capture the vibe AND have a good plot that isn't convoluted. But I am with you. Hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
- nickthegreek 4y agoIt maybe un-movieable, but is it un-serialized-storyable? Personally, I’m excited to find out.
- Apocryphon 4y agoEh, as I said last time we had a Neuromancer adaptation news story, Dune was said to be unfilmable for years until Villeneuve went and did it and made it seem both natural and almost a little bit conventional. We're in a golden age of IP right now, and now that superheroes are getting a bit tired, perhaps it's time for classic sci-fi adaptations to shine. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33886166 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33886166
- deepzn 4y agoHe did it, but still would have a preferred a Dune TV show, especially after the success of GoT, and the streaming wars. The money was there. Characters played by Jason Momoa, Oscar Issac etc only got a little bit of screen time. And all those cool characters would have been amazing to watch over a few seasons.
- santiagobasulto 4y agoAside of who's casted, I hope the director/producer is a strong figure with artistic liberty. I'm gonna sound like a grouchy old man, but streaming services are completely killing cinema. TV shows spanning +8 seasons, with all different producers/directors. I'd like this to be a short series (4 episodes TOPS) with one very strong director that can set their foot strong and don't comply to Apple to make it extremely mainstream (like what Netflix did with Cowboy Bebop's adaptation, couldn't pass the first 15 minutes).
- westmeal 4y agoUgh I know, cowboy bebops adaptation was one of the most upsetting things I've ever seen.
- duped 4y agoI feel like streaming services and premium cable have really nailed down the long form narrative on screen. I don't really want an 8+ season show anymore. That's a recipe for dragging things out that distract from the narrative. A show that hits you with 5 minutes of story, 30 minutes of monster-of-the-week, and 5 minutes of story + a cliffhanger isn't nearly as good as a 8-10 episode season of pure narrative. If it lasts only 3 seasons it's still better, and leaves more room on the proverbial marquee for the next story.
- santiagobasulto 4y agoI think the huge masterpieces of cinema were told in only ~180 minutes (give or take). If you’re creating a more than 8 episode production you’re either: a) not good enough to condense and keep only the best, the most important pieces. b) your story is VERY unique and it does require 8 episodes. It’s highly unlikely that b) happens. For example, the Lord of the Rings only took 3 really good movies. So that leaves me with a). A bunch of the modern productions are just filling the show with low-relevance stuff just to keep people plugged at their TV. There are exceptions to this, of course. Friends was very good in 10 seasons, but it’s just a sitcom. A documentary can be longer. Again, the bulk of productions, IMHO, should be less than 5 episodes (Chernobyl for example).
- 4y ago
- nerdjon 4y agoIs it just me or is Apple TV+ really leaning hard into the Science Fiction and (and nerd) categories a lot more than the other streamers? Foundation (Which I have not watched yet). See Mythic Quest. Severence. For All Mankind. Prehistoric Planet (obviously not science fiction but for sure nerd). And others that I am likely missing? Also good science fiction that feels like they really invested in it
- pohl 4y agoInvasion, Amazing Stories
- zerocrates 4y agoAmazon has several: The Expanse counts for a lot in my book. Netflix obviously has Stranger Things, Dark, now 1899, and a million other things because they just make some of everything. Sense8, Black Mirror, Love Death and Robots, Cyberpunk Edgerunners...
- speed_spread 4y agoAmazon has the amazing "Tales from the loop" which is IMHO the best SciFi show they produced. I think it gets overlooked because of the low-key "tale" format, where every episode is its own little story in a shared universe. But it's beautifully filmed and truly captures the essence of Simon Stalenhag's paintings which it is based upon.
- Anthony-G 4y ago
- WFHRenaissance 4y agoIt's going to be really bad.
- prvc 4y agoUnbelievably arrogant of Apple TV+ to continue to appropriate for itself the moral right to adapt sci-fi classics after having created an almost unending stream of absolute garbage for three years.
- option 4y agohopefully it will turn out much better than Foundation series fiasco. Still, I am very optimistic!
- b800h 4y agoIt won't.
- Kaibeezy 4y agoI want to see Seveneves :(
- plusminusplus 4y agoI think this is a great time to make it -- telling stories focused on women is popular now (no flamebait), with a big enough budget it wouldn't look cheesy, and it's such a great story. As long as they cast Neil deGrasse Tyson as Doc of course :)
- Kaibeezy 4y agoI'd read Ron Howard was working on it, but that burned up in the atmosphere or something. Honestly, doesn't even have to be a movie or series, just give me an extended premium CGI flyby around and through some O'Neill cylinders.
- LegitShady 4y agoI have long since stopped being excited for modern makes/remakes of titles I enjoy, and just anticipate disappointment and cringe when its "updated for today's audience" into stupidity and garbage.
- outworlder 4y agoI was iffy about AppleTV+. Why do I need another streaming service? Then I got an offer of 6 months for free. Decided to try it out. Started For All Mankind. And was pleasantly surprised! Good visuals, great acting and despite being technically science fiction (alternate world timeline) it felt incredibly grounded in reality. Science is on point. Even more so than The Expanse. I had high expectations and it exceeded them. I hope they don't drop the ball. Although to be fair, these days that's not even difficult. The first streaming service that promises to finish the series they start will get my subscription. It's a huge problem in sci fi.
- ethanbond 4y agoIf you haven't yet, check out Severance. Really incredible I suppose near-future sci fi? Started a bit slow for me but eventually became one of the best shows I've seen in years.
- Anthony-G 4y agoI was in the same boat with AppleTV+. A couple of years ago, the only thing I’d heard people talk about was The Morning Show and that didn’t seem worth it. Then, after buying an Apple device, we got a year’s subscription and since then, there’s been enough quality content for us to keep paying after the year ran out. > Science is on point. So was the politics – the internal NASA politics, the relationship between NASA and the US government, and how the US would respond to the Soviet Union. Equally on-point was the personal lives and relationships of the various characters; there’s more than enough human interest for viewers who aren’t into science or politics). I loved the first two seasons but unfortunately, the quality dropped badly for the third season – particularly the latter half. I’m not sure I’d watch another season (if it comes out). I’d also fully concur with my sibling commentator recommeding Severance. See mine and others’ comments in this thread.
- stevenwoo 4y agoTwo animated series this year did a decent job of portraying different parts of the world portrayed in Neuromancer, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Pantheon (based on short stories by Ken Liu).
- chungus 4y agoI really enjoyed Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Been recommending it to everyone that will listen. I felt it really nailed what I imagined Neuromancer would look like. E.g. the "hacking" scenes looked exactly like the 'ice' hacking in Neuromancer. Will be checking out Pantheon as well, thanks.
- stevenwoo 4y agoWarning - Pantheon only addresses the consciousness upload aspect and consequences and otherwise looks like slight advances in technology otherwise.
- jmull 4y agoIt will be interesting to see how they do it... Neuromancer was mind-blowing in, what was it, the mid '80s? I think I had just upgraded from an 8K PET to a Commodore 64 w/300 baud modem and was finding local phone numbers to log into BBS's. We're all well past that now. A faithful retelling would have some nostalgia value, but I'm hoping they go for something more ambitious. I know they can't drop a brain bomb on me like Gibson did, but hope they can make me jitter a bit.
- mhd 4y agoI wonder if the street will find a use for that.
- passwordoops 4y agoMy dirty little secret: with the exception of the Three Body Problem I have a terrible habit of waiting for the threat of Hollywood adaptations before picking up modern SF classics. Neuromancer is unfortunately in that category.
- joshgachnang 4y agoUgh, Three Body Problem is another show I'm excited for but have super low hopes. Another super hard to film show, but with excellent source material. I really hope Netflix and D&D don't mess it up.
- passwordoops 4y ago1- oh Lord, I forgot they picked it up 2- D&D should be forced to start every single workday by watching this video: https://youtu.be/oupHONsXsZc https://youtu.be/oupHONsXsZc And explain, scene by scene, how and why this YouTuber would have been a better choice to write and direct the final season than they were
- killthebuddha 4y agoOooh boy, big boots to fill. Related/aside: I've had this silly whimsical idea for a couple years of a Broadway adaptation of Neuromancer starring (and with music written by) Logic.
- spillguard 4y agoThe biggest obstacle stopping Neuromancer from being a viable TV show, IMO, is the lack of cohesion between chapters - readers are frequently dumped into the middle of entirely different circumstances than the previous chapter, just as they were maybe getting a grip on what was going on. And honestly, it kind of works! The pacing would be far too slow if characters stopped every five minutes to explain what was going on for the audience's sake. Hypothetically this could work in an episodic format, but will it be signed off on by conservative showrunners/execs? I'd guess no, but will remain cautiously optimistic.
- alfalfasprout 4y agoI think the trick to a tv adaptation is to not restrict oneself to a strict adaptation of the book but rather to reorder things, etc. to allow for character development. The visual medium also leaves a lot of things to be inferred by viewers without going into excruciating detail to explain things. I could see it also working well in episodic format with episodes focusing on individual characters.
- cjtrowbridge 4y agoI am terrified of what they will do with it, but foundation was good.
- smm11 4y agoSnowpiercer was pretty cool to the high school me all the way until I saw someone else's interpretation of it, which told me how silly it was.
- de_keyboard 4y agoFunny what gets picked up. I'm not convinced Neuromancer is a good movie plot-wise, and it risks looking like a cheap Blade Runner clone. Why can't someone adapt Consider Phlebas? The book is already an action/adventure movie and the drones would make great merch :)
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y agoAlso: combat suits. :glands Fidget:
- hnbear 4y agoConsider Phlebas - Amazon picked it up, it’s the show I’ve been waiting for for years. I think it’s incredibly TV-able. Great story and lots of fun: aliens, spaceships, spies, changing, fancy weapons, funny AIs. With enough money could make a really incredible TV series. But, there’s been silence since they announced they were starting production several years ago
- LarryMullins 4y agoI think the only way to do Neuromancer justice is to recapture the camp yet earnest energy of the Johnny Mnemonic movie. Unfortunately I don't have high hopes.
- EvanAnderson 4y agoI can't imagine this is going to go well. At least it's not "Snow Crash". For the love of all that is good please, nobody try to adapt "Snow Crash". (I wonder if I should try to crowd-fund buying the film rights to "Snow Crash" so it can be off-the-table forever...)
- odiroot 4y agoFunny, I have the completely opposite wish. I'd really love to see movie adaptations for "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" in my lifetime.
- glenstein 4y agoI agree with you, although maybe for different reasons. A lot of the vibe of snowcrash almost felt like a saturday morning cartoon, and it seems like it would make even more sense on the screen than in a book. I also understand it was originally intended to be a graphic novel.
- EvanAnderson 4y agoI didn’t know about the graphic novel intention, but that probably explains why I have only ever seen it working in a motion picture medium, in my mind, as an anime. A well-done “Snow Crash” anime would absolutely do the material justice but I’m not sure it would have enough market potential to get made. I’d kick money into that cause, too.
- EvanAnderson 4y ago“Cryptonomicon” would definitely work. “Anathem” is another one that I’d love to see and I think could be made to work in the medium.
- meindnoch 4y agoAnd Amazon is adapting Warhammer 40k. Let’s hope they won’t botch it like they did with The Foundation and the Rings of Power. (I don’t have high hopes)
- alienreborn 4y agoThey've also botched The Wheel of Time.
- mercutio2 4y agoI don't actually like The Wheel of Time, so my reactions to the show are about whether it's good television: I think it was. Rings of Power was unwatchable, I gave up. I never really liked Foundation (although I read all the books when I was too young to realize Asimov was incapable of portraying characters that weren't paper thin). I found some of the changes obnoxious but comprehensible for building a show, but found it also to be watchable TV. I'm pretty confident the people producing these shows care more about whether people think it's watchable TV than whether big fans of the original agree their conversion is faithful, which sounds like your complaint, here.
- hardwaregeek 4y agoI've thought long and hard about adapting Neuromancer. I think it can be done, but you'd need some liberties. For one, the whole idea of the Tessier-Ashpools would be fascinating if put through the lens of modern billionaires. Like analyzing the Musks and the Bezos of the world who are obsessed with perpetuation of their wealth, of their power, to the point of not actually enjoying their life. I loved the analogy in the book of a nest of wasps, these almost parasitic pests burrowed into their home. You'd have to figure out some way to integrate this into the ending, which I felt was kinda hand-waved in the book. With a character like Case, you'd need to nail the frenetic energy, like on his last bit of money, strung out, no sleep, basically like a Safdie brothers protagonist. My dream aesthetic would be Safdie brothers + Ridley Scott with a dose of Jóhann Jóhannsson (RIP) for music. Molly could be interesting if you embrace the street samurai moniker and give her a sort of Yojimbo-esque amusement. This is a big big change but I'd love it if the Japanese obsession was replaced with a more modern multi-Asian aesthetic. It'd be interesting to blend k-pop and Chinese social media culture into the mix. And make some of the characters Asian-American.
- paparush 4y agoMy question is, how do you make Neuromancer almost 25 years after The Matrix, which was built on the precepts of Neuromancer, and not just end up with a road-worn Matrix movie?
- Apocryphon 4y agoOr even more banally, after Netflix's Altered Carbon, which I've only seen an episode or two of, yet it so easily encapsulates the platonic ideal of what a gritty cyberpunk show should look and feel like, to the point of banality? I'm not even picking on that specific series, it's probably not even the only example of that type of show that's been created in the last decade. In short, how do you elevate it to more than a second-rate, middling, competent and utterly forgettable adaptation lost among the streams and appealing only to fans of the original work.
- boppo1 4y ago
- drewg123 4y agoThis may be an unpopular opinion, but I wish networks/services would stop trying to make safe bets with new screen adaptations of classic books and movies. Some of the worst TV I've watched this year has been adaptations of classic books/movies (Foundation, LOTR) and some of the best has been new content (Severance, Raised by Wolves, House of the Dragon).
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago> This may be an unpopular opinion I believe it's not so unpopular. I believe it depends on the demography, I, for one, am tired of seeing things I grew up with being ruined by poor writing and/or low interest in keeping the source material as a pivotal element of the narration. Few examples - Foundation wasn't bad per se, if it was marketed as fan fiction. As an adaptation of Asimov's works it's really bad and also chose a timeline that's totally unsatisfying for everybody, both newcomers and book fans. Starting from "Prelude to Foundation" was a much better idea to set up the stage for future story development and as an introduction to the characters. - Rings of Power, same sin: it isn't Tolkien, it is a fan fiction with some actors cosplaying Tolkien characters that, at its center, portrays a very silly, very boring, romantic story between the female protagonist and the male villain. Teenage good, if the villain was no other than Sauron, AKA "The Lord of the Rings". - Andor, that I too consider good, is, from an objective POV, just decent. Decent enough in this time and space to stand out compared to the endless list of monstrosities that Disney recently produced especially the Star Wars themed ones, but certainly not a masterpiece, as many have called it. - Willow: lets' not talk about it. A mediocre movie from the late 80s that has gained a cult status only because, IMO, the video game was reaaaalllyyy good, that had only one reason to be re-adapted to modern times: scrape the bottom of the barrel. It is so bad that you can actually feel sorry for he people who worked at making it. Neuromancer? I have no hope that they'll make something good, the era of cyber punk hype is long gone, it would already be a miracle to get it back, let alone have an honest adaptation of Gibson's ideas. During the camberian explosion of the cyber punk movie trope they already tried with Johnny Mnemonic and had to basically rewrite the script from scratch because the book, that was only 10 years ago, had a lot of things that would poorly adapt to 1995, the movie was just ok, with lots of hits and misses, it worked, but it's not memorable. Neuromancer is 100x harder to adapt and this time it won't be a movie, on real theatrical big screens, but a TV show, on a streaming platform. There are too many things that could go wrong, to be optimists. But, there's a big but: William Gibson himself is on board, so I will probably watch it nonetheless.
- jdkee 4y agoGiven the experience of the meh version of the Peripheral on Amazon and the uniquely literal visions proffered by Neuromancer, I imagine it will be difficult to bring the brilliant novel to a brilliant film.
- j0hnyl 4y agoThe closest we will ever come to an authentic Neuromancer adaptation is the movie Johnny Mnemonic.
- Bnichs 4y agoI always need to remind people when this book comes up: If you like Neuromancer, you must play the game Soma. I picked up Neuromancer after playing Soma and finding it to be the most incredible story driven game I've ever played and wanting to devour all it's influences, and Gibson was certainly an influence. Don't read about it, don't look at the plot, just start playing the game and at least make it to when you meet the lady.
- burntalmonds 4y agoThanks. I have this game from ps plus, but I haven't played it. I'll have to check it out.
- sherr 4y agoModern film making technology can probably do much better justice to a book like Neuromancer but the technology isn't the most important part. The BBC did a radio adaptation almost 20 years ago and you can find it on YouTube and other places. I enjoyed it and it is worth listening to.
- xen2xen1 4y agoThe sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. Epic line.
- Klonoar 4y agoA line that increasingly doesn't resonate with people who didn't grow up with "dead" channels, which is crazy to think about.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- alfalfasprout 4y agoI'm all for it. Netflix has turned into a production house of generic drivel for the most part (and as AI improves I'm sure it'll only get worse as the bar for low-effort derivative scripts drops). Apple TV+ hasn't been without its issues but it's had some truly well-thought out content. Severance is riveting, carefully filmed and thought out, and unlike most TV I've watched in the last 10 years. For all mankind started off quite rough but improved significantly in later seasons as well. For all its faults as a company, Apple has done a great job leaving creativity to the creatives when it comes to shows.
- StevePerkins 4y agoA computer hacker, with a film noir kung-fu love interest by his side, jacks into a simulated cyberspace known as "The Matrix"? Facing a malevolent A.I., with the guidance of an "oracle"-like aspect of that A.I.? Hasn't this already been adapted? The idea of going back to the original source material at this point feels almost... quaint. I hope it doesn't feel like it's aping its successors, rather than the other way around.
- Klonoar 4y agoNeuromancer on the screen is a "I'll believe it when I see it" at this point. Granted, this seems much more likely - but I've been burned before. I also worry that it's too late for this to be done well, but it's pretty much my favorite book so I'm glad to see where it goes. Will probably be the thing that makes me actually bother with Apple TV+.
- hobbitstan 4y agoHopefully Chris Cunningham is attached to it. He has all but vanished over the years but would be the ideal director.
- gorgoiler 4y agoGosh, Neuromancer is such a light précis of the genre it defined: it’s exciting to think this might be a multi season anthology doing a deep dive on the world, and also anxiety inducing thinking they might try to cover the whole story in one season, missing all the nuance along the way. Walt and Jessie gave up a whole episode to a fly in their lab. Will we see a whole episode dedicated to lung sized holo inducers?
- tracerbulletx 4y agoI think with all adaptations, there exist brilliant filmmakers who can adapt any work at the same level as the original, but our odds of getting that person and all the right circumstances to allow for total success are relatively low. More likely is really bad design by committee, or something that contains pretty good ideas but does enough wrong to lose the magic.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- meaningjoj 4y agoI wonder if they will update the tech, e.g., having cell phones
- indigodaddy 4y agoHopefully this will turn out good. However I am waiting with bated breath for Wool. Cmon Apple release it already!!!
- drcongo 4y agoI'm extremely excited about this news. There was a point where Chris Cunningham was slated to be adapting it which I think would have been amazing, really hope they expand the team listed in the article with the right talent. Wish they'd adapt Pattern Recognition though.
- frankfrank13 4y agoCautiously optimistic
- EmilioMartinez 4y agoYou can recognize that artstyle anywhere. In case anybody is interested in the art displayed on the right side; It's by Josan Gonzalez, who does amazing dystopic illustrations. The pic in question turns out to be the cover for a Brazilian edition of the book, and I'm guessing it's otherwise unrelated to the series, which is a pitty because Jason's art is amazing. Here's a slightly animated showreel of his artbook "The Future is Now": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRve8Gsby5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRve8Gsby5o
- vpastore 4y agoHere we go. Another great book ruined by greedy soulless corporation