Neuromancer On The Big Screen

The cult novel from the 1980s could finally be adapted for the big screen. William Gibson's work has inspired many movies.

William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, a 1980s bestseller as well as cult reading for anyone who is eager to say that he or she has read a lot of good SF, seems to be on its way to the big screen. Peter Hoffman, owner of the production company Seven Arts, is full of announcements, thank yous, and plans. 

Neuromancer should go into production very soon because Paul Verhoeven’s project The Winter Queen got postponed because of Milla Jovovich’s pregnancy and Hoffman does not want to be idle. The film has a 70 million dollar budget and will be directed by first-time director Joseph Kahn, the man known from the world of music videos (U2, Britney Spears). 

One should, however, be careful with Hoffman. He does have the Rambo series behind him (as the president of Carolco Pictures), but he is always faced with lawsuits of some kind. He narrowly avoided going to prison for tax evasion and he was recently sued by Artisan (The Blair Witch Project) because he had unexpectedly pulled out of the project Novocaine and nearly crashed the film’s entire financial scheme. 

Let us hope that he will show more mercy with Neuromancer. After all, it is the novel that gave us notions and ideas such as cyberpunk and cyberspace.