Neuromancer: Miles Teller Eyed for New Apple+ Sci-Fi Series | Hacker News Reader

Neuromancer: Miles Teller Eyed for New Apple+ Sci-Fi Series

theilluminerdi.com

29 pointshindsightbias39 comments

"Molly is a mercenary, who was recruited by the same person as Case. The character is supposed to resemble Trinity from the Matrix films" - I think it's the other way around.

I wonder what color the sky will be (a television tuned to a dead channel). Will it just be pitch black or bright blue with NO SIGNAL, HDMI, TV1, TV2 in bright white letters?

I always read it as the color of a blank screen. A glassy black with just the barest shimmer.

I always read a dead channel as pure static.

Same here, grainy and distorted.

I always imagined just a bouncing Roku logo.

One of my favourite lines from a book was Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, where they come out of the subway and the sky is blue, the colour of television tuned to a dead channel. Very well played.

I wonder how much of this has to do with The Peripheral doing so well? (Both books are by William Gibson. Highly recommend.)

> Set in a futuristic Japan, the show will follow the hacker, Case, who after breaking out of prison agrees to do one last job that brings him in contact with a forceful AI.

Neuromancer deserves better than this. <minor-spoilers> Case was a has-been hacker who tried to steal from his employer and got his neural link or whatever fried and is looking for a cure. Why the prison angle? Is it to move away from the bad corps angle and move to a bad-cops/state one or what?

Yeah that prison bit is weird why would they butcher a simple narrative like that?

Sounds like a mashup with Shantaram :/

Talking about a film adaptation of Neuromancer isn’t new, I don’t think. Yet, in spite of having no film adaptation, it’s had an enormous cinematic influence. I guess I wonder if anything is really missing if it’s just left alone to do it’s own thing as a book?

Yeah, several directors have been associated with the project in the past. It spans decades now.

One of the directors from a past incarnation, Vincenzo Natali, directed much of The Peripheral series. He's done a good job with that show, and I think he gets Neuromancer better than most. Maybe it'll be him.

I remember playing first the C64 Neuromancer game, which seemed great at the time and then moving on to the novel. I was always surprised they made a game but then never made a movie, especially when Johnny Mnemonic came out.

The game was a surprisingly good adventure game. Actually played it, then got the book. I loved the primitive hacking simulation back then as teen also.

Please don't let them mess this up like they did Foundation (where a very human story, about ordinary people making the proper decisions at the right time degraded into some kind of superhero flick). And yes, I know, second foundation and the mule and all, but this came later in the story. The first foundation is about ordinary people and it's only this aspect, which makes the mule stand out so much and which far later makes the choice Trevize has to make in any way important. And the gun blazing Salvor Hardin really is an insult.

"3Jane answering in song, three notes, high and pure, A true name."

Ever since I've read and re-read this book, this perplexes me. What was the true name?? Isn't it revealed like in Wizard of Earthsea? Or is there no name ever revealed kind of like the end of "Lost in Translation"?

Maybe a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names ?

Still waiting for that HBO Snow Crash TV show directed by Joe Cornish of Attack the Block fame.

I almost don’t want anyone to do this because if it gets screwed up badly, it will ruin it forever.

Neuromancer deserves it. Such an influential trilogy and yet no major film adaptations.

I’m actually super excited for this

I'm not, after what they did to Foundation.

I’ve been slowly watching it, and while the actual Foundation aspects are lackluster (the alien Vault feels gratuitous), it surprised me by how compelling the Cleon genetic dynasty was. Of course, Lee Pace is an amazing actor, and having more of him is a real force multiplier.

I agree, thought that was the best bit.

I think these are different “theys”. Foundation was Skydance TV, this looks to be Apple directly. Or at least no production company is named in the article.

Foundation is good.

It just ain’t foundation the book.

But it is probably impossible to film anyway.

But Asimov himself ruined foundation in the 80s with the awful sequels and prequels. Nothing like the original.

Disagree.

Asimov himself matured as he grew older and that improved his writing. In the original Foundation trilogy women are mere props. Things happen to them, they don’t make things happen. In his later years he was capable of writing a strong female character that actually did something. She’s easily my favourite character by Asimov.

The 2 prequels are fascinating to me also because they explain why the creator of the Foundation did what he did and how he managed it. For example it’s taken for granted that the galactic empire was declining. But how, and why? It adds richness to the story by exploring this dimension.

But I suppose that’s not for everyone.

What thoughtless slander. There are two strong female characters I recall: Bayta and Arkady Darell. They do plenty by their own volition and are central movers of the plot. You also imply that the empire's decline must be taken for granted, but that is explored at least in the Bel Riose story, and probably other places too. You might be due for a reread (assuming you even read them in the first place).

Too much retcons, and shoehorning his three+ laws robots in it was beyong meh.

Exactly.

The first Foundation books were mostly men in rooms drinking whiskey, smoking cigars and congratulating themselves on how perfectly all their plans went.

Then we get a time skip and GOTO 10, with some of the men now dead and new ones added.

The YA-Terminus and over the top ST:Discovery-style cry-acting is a bit off-putting, but Lee Pace is so good it doesn't matter.

Apple should just bring in Ben Stiller to do weird out like he did with Severence.

Foundation was actually great if you just skip all young-adult Terminus crap and watch the space soap opera about genetic dynasty family issues. I could watch cloned Cleons all day.

(I'm rooting for them and I hope they'll crush those terminus rebels and keep the empire from falling)

Agreed, it’s not perfect but has plenty of good parts, and Lee Pace is excellent in it.

Sure, it was an interesting series but it had almost nothing to do with Asimov's Foundation.

The same thing is likely to happen to Neuromancer.

Everything that had something to do with Asimov's Foundation was terrible. Empire stuff was great.

I liked it. I thought the different interweaving stories, all revolving about how the characters very different social contexts still directed and constrained their choices, was an interesting illustration of the idea behind psychohistory. That’s something the novels never even attempted.

Same impression I had. I really enjoyed Asimov's Foundation but yearned for a bit more of exposé on the psychohistory concept. The TV series is a very different adaptation but I feel it can stand on its own, the development of characters instead of the arc feels like a good approach for the medium.

I don't think that a faithful adaptation would work so well on the screen, it spans centuries and centuries of history in the books, the revolving doors of character would just make the audience not care at all about any of them in the end, given that most would be dead by the next episode/chapter because a century or two has passed. Or just confused with many characters appearing for a brief part of the arc.

I loved the book. I hope they do better than they did with johnny mnemonic

Always imagined Ben Whishaw as Case.

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