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I am a huge Neuromancer fan and have read the book at least twenty times. I’m not really optimistic about this, mostly because the world of the novel is too dir
by keiferski 3y ago
I am a huge Neuromancer fan and have read the book at least twenty times. I’m not really optimistic about this, mostly because the world of the novel is too dirty, chaotic, and messy for a company like Apple to produce. It would need to be made by a director like Gaspar Noé or Alphonso Cuaron (I’m thinking of Children of Men) to get the mood right.
- alisonatwork 3y agoThe Mosquito Coast had a fair bit of grime and jankiness to it, although of course there were still a lot of pretty drone shots of the jungle. I think they can go there if they choose.
- ethbr1 3y agoAgreed! High tech, low life. Alfonso Cuarón would have been great.
- keiferski 3y agoYes exactly. When I think of cyberpunk computing devices, I think of cyber decks, which are basically the exact opposite of Apple devices.
- ethbr1 3y agoEh. The AVP is getting close to an Ono-Sendai, in features if not freedom.
- keiferski 3y agoI haven't used one myself, but I don't get that impression at all. The Ono-Sendai is entirely VR, not AR, and definitely doesn't come across as having a user-friendly design.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 was the visualization translation unit connected to a dermatrode headset (superseded by neuro jacks in later books) and was not completely alien to simstim input, evidenced by Case toggling between the two. See passage: https://genius.com/William-gibson-neuromancer-chapter-4-annotated https://genius.com/William-gibson-neuromancer-chapter-4-anno... It was definitely less user-friendly than the AVP, so more "Power is sometimes worth inconvenience" Macintosh IIci-era Apple.
- keiferski 3y agoI always envisioned the Ono Sendai as something like an Alienware, except designed by Sony and actually popular amongst real computer enthusiasts (and powerful enough to warrant the reputation.)
- ethbr1 3y agoOne of my favorite things about Gibson is how impressionistic he is, especially for scifi, which leads to people having a lot of different mental images as they go through the books. :) Per closest reading of the source, it seems like a complete Matrix set would be {computer} + {deck/sensory translator} + {neural interface hardware, e.g. trodes or jack}. Believe it's also implied decks can run the Matrix standalone, without a computer, but likely have limited processing capacity. My physical manifestation of the deck was definitely very 90s crap plastic, but hinting that there were powerful and expensive electronics concealed within. There's also some textual stuff about them essentially being epoxy-filled / security-sealed to prevent tampering or reverse engineering.
- s_dev 3y agoI will say they've done 'not a terrible job' with their Foundation series -- another hardcore SciFi book. I don't recommend it to people for viewing but I've enjoyed it myself.
- lucianbr 3y agoThe Foundation tv show shares nothing but the name with Asimov's books. That doesn't mean it's bad, but it's a strange "adaptation". They should have called it something else. If they do this the same way, the name Neuromancer will just be there to get some brand recognition for an arbitrary new SF series.
- alephnerd 3y agoI'm a massive Foundation simp (it was a foundational - hehe - book for me and sparked my interest in econometrics and ML), and I found the Foundation show to be fairly acceptable. The Foundation trilogy in it's original form doesn't really lend itself well to television, as it was a serialized anthology, sort of like a semi-disjointed Canterbury Tales. When trying to convert that into a big budget prestige television show a la GoT, you will have to make some significant narrative changes. Honestly, I appreciate it as younger people like me who are derisively called "Normies" were largely turned off to Sci-Fi due to the negative perceptions of older Gen X and Millenial fans (that fat nerd character in Simpsons is sadly too close to the truth ime), and most of the criticism I've seen against the Foundation TV show is largely Gamergate-esque and annoyed that certain characters are women or not white (despite Asimov purposely writing his stories in a race agnostic manner due to his racist editor).
- lproven 3y ago> The Foundation tv show shares nothing but the name with Asimov's books It is closer to the source material than the film _I, Robot_ was to the short story. It retains at least some of the overall plot. I only watched the first episode, TBH, and didn't find it interesting enough to keep going. I'm pretty old (56) and I read my dad's original copies _Foundation_ as a little pre-teen kid, when it was already 30+ years old, and the sequel trilogy when they were newly released in the 1980s. It has not aged well, and the producers did well to modernise it, I think. But still...
- bazoom42 3y agoIt will not be produced by Apple the company. It is comissioned by Apple TV but will be produced by some tv production company. In any case, the “grittiness” and overall style is due to the director and creative team, not the company (although a company may specialize in certain genres). Of course Apple might comission a production targeting specific demographic.
- keiferski 3y agoBut it’s still going to be featured prominently on Apple TV and so more-or-less needs to align with their brand.
- ethbr1 3y agoDo the new streaming platforms have a brand identity for original content? I'm hard pressed to enunciate what "a Netflix/Prime/Apple+/Paramount+/Hulu/etc show" is, distinct from the general content milieu.
- keiferski 3y agoI think there is definitely a "Netflix look" and feel to their content, and this is backed up by industry pros. https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/16precd/whats_the_real_reason_netflix_shows_all_look_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/16precd/wha... Apple+ definitely gives me a feeling of, well-polished, minimal, adult but in a cerebral, not somatic, way. Which is why I don't think they're a great fit for the very chaotic, 80s maximalism that is the Sprawl series.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe key point from that thread is probably about set dressing: >> Unlike other traditional studios, Netflix does not store/warehouse set pieces. It all gets fire-sold at wrap. So at say, Paramount, a set designer can use elements from the last 25 years stored away with Paramount. Producers can pull elements from storage and slide chunks of the budget towards casting or other high production value. It certainly seemed like For All Mankind warehoused a significant chunk of set elements, but I assume it was no-question greenlit into subsequent seasons.
- havblue 3y agoThe book has a lot to say about VR and AI, which are sensitive topics to show in a negative light at Apple. I'd be surprised if there isn't a lot of corporate oversight into how these subjects are presented. "Do we really want to have the AI kill so many people? Maybe it can just incapacitate them..."
- keiferski 3y agoThis is a great point that I didn't think about. Now I'm worried that Case will be jacking into the Matrix using his Apple Vision Pro.
- OnionBlender 3y agoThat's a good point. Very dystopian sci-fi for a mega corp to manipulate public perception of their products with entertainment.
- ethbr1 3y agoDoes Apple have an incentive to minimize fears about AI? If this were Microsoft or Google, sure. But Apple (as a corporation) seems to, if anything, benefit from playing up fears about AI.