By Cult director Vincenzo Natali of Cube and Splice fame looks to have made progress in moving forward with his adaptation of William Gibson’s landmark cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. According to SlashFilm, the film has found distributors at Cannes and will go into pre-production, with filming planned in Tokyo, London, Istanbul and Canada.
Gibson’s novel has been put forward countless times for adaptation but not yet managed to reach the screen despite being one of the most important science fiction books of its time. In addition to popularising the term ‘cyberspace’ (which Gibson had actually invented in his earlier work Burning Chrome), it was one of the Wachowski Brothers’ key influences on The Matrix, who borrowed the name of its virtual network for their title.
The book is a wonderful and startlingly prescient read, recommended for any sci-fi fans who have somehow not come across it yet. With console cowboys, street samurai, Deus Ex-esque transhumanist themes and super-powered AIs, it has all the ingredients to make a spectacular movie… should it actually get off the ground this time.
[via SlashFilm]