Neuromancer – The Movie?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 11, 2011

I discovered the novel Neuromancer just shortly after the 80’s had faded. Then I discovered the (by then, old) adventure / RPG based on the book, which was somewhat surprisingly quite good in spite of failing to capture anything close to the tone of the novel. For those who haven’t played the game or read the novel – the novel is dark, somewhat gritty science fiction that created the sadly short-lived “cyberpunk” genre. The game was a pretty humorous take on the source material.

But almost as exciting as the game was the note in the manual that Neuromancer was soon to be a motion picture from “Cabana Boy Productions.” That was in 1989 or so when the game was published, a couple of years before I picked up the game, so while I hoped it would be true, I wasn’t exactly holding my breath.

I got excited when I heard that William Gibson’s short story, Johnny Mnemonic, which takes place in the same world (a couple of years earlier) was made for the big screen. I always thought (and still do) that this short story would make a killer movie. And if it did well, then Neuromancer couldn’t be far behind. Unfortunately, they did a terrible job of it, and the movie sucked, and probably did poorly in the box office.

When the movie, The Matrix hit the silver screen and made a bundle and stole the thunder from a new Star Wars movie in 1999 (and even starred Keanu Reeves, who’d also starred in Johnny Mnemonic), I thought, “Hey, The Matrix was obviously heavily inspired by Neuromancer. Maybe this will pave the way for someone to finally make that movie!”

It’s been twelve years, so I’d kinda given up on that hope.

But… maybe… just maybe… it’s finally gonna happen. As in, they’ve been in pre-production since May, though it sounds like they are still working out the kinks, funding, etc.  My take on this is hopeful, but I’m still not holding my breath.

Science Fiction World’s Neuromancer update from earlier this year.

Bruce Willis to be in Neuromancer?

I could see Bruce Willis as Armitage, but definitely not starring as Case.

So could Neuromancer work today, now that it will seem like it’s merely imitating films that beat it to market but in reality heavily borrowed from the original book?

I think so. I think that an adaptation to film shouldn’t be a literal retelling of the book’s story… almost no book-to-screen adaptations can survive that port without some significant changes. But I think the story remains pretty solid and could be a lot of fun. I just pray that they do a better job than they did with Johnny Mnemonic.

I expect that if they do, and it does well, we’ll see another Neuromancer game.  And I expect that it will be more true-to-style to the movie than the first game. I also expect it to suck compared to the original. But that’s just my youthful optimism speaking.

Filed Under: Books, Movies - Comments: 7 Comments to Read



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