The latest on Joseph Kahn’s Neuromancer adaptation

We don’t like to report non-news or near-news but sometimes it’s just a bit too fascinating to ignore. This snippet involves Joseph Kahn’s proposed adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which was initially to star Hayden Christensen as Case, then not, then perhaps to star Liv Tyler (as Molly?), then perhaps not. Then it all went silent on the news front and we wondered if it wasn’t dead. But no.

On November 13, Joseph Kahn twittered: Epiphany. I finally figured out how to end the movie.

If that were all, it would be pretty clear non-news, but this is non-news with a twist! Because guess who responded? No, not me. Not Sooty. Yes, William Gibson.

He wrote: Scroll, or voiceover?

Kahn responded: LOL. Freeze frame.

And that really is that. The exchange is essentially meaningless, beyond the fact it shows that the project is still trundling along and that Gibson himself is interested in it.

As a cowboy once said to another cowboy, “I wish I knew how to quit you”. While that’s lacking in any thematic relevance to this post, it pretty well encapsulates my ambivalence towards Joseph Kahn’s upcoming project. It doesn’t sound good and it would be nice if I could just get over it, rather than leaping at the slightest hint of news – but I can’t and I do and there you have it.

This film would constitute Joseph Kahn’s first feature length directorial project. He has previously directed videos for artists as diverse as Britney Spears, Britney Spears and Blink 182. The script that he is allegedly working from is now a good nineteen years old. You can read it here but this is a chilling excerpt: 

"PALE MAN (chuckles)
Oh, we're not arresting you. The law books haven't quite caught up with your technology. Breaking into the computer matrix by cerebral projection... that's a little tough to prosecute, don't you think?"

I know, I know. Get over it already. Oh, but if it wasn’t all wrong, just think how right it would be.