Paul Raven @ 10-01-2008
I have a bad relationship with the movie industry - they have a terrible habit of taking books I love and murdering them on screen. I had a rant about it when I first heard someone had optioned William Gibson’s Neuromancer, but Jason Ellis has just pointed out the fact that they’re actually casting it already.
Being somewhat detached from the cinema world, I have no idea who Hayden Christensen is, or whether he’d be any good as Case (or indeed as anyone). But there’s a microcosm example of why good books die when they leap to celluloid, in the commentary at this film fan site where Ellis found the news:
“I’ll be honest and admit I’ve never read NEUROMANCER and my rudimentary attempts to try and understand the plot have only confused me. But it seems very much a precursor to the Matrix with the book even referring to “the matrix.”" [my emphasis]
Face, meet palm. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of explosions and bullet time to keep the slow readers happy. [Image lifted from linked article at JoBlo.com]
Anyone care to suggest a book-to-film conversion that really worked, with the obvious (and in my opinion unique) exception of Blade Runner?
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Paul Raven @ 13-08-2007
Poor Bill Gibson - the publicity wagon for his current novel Spook Country is still rolling, and he’s probably sick to death of public appearances and interviews, itching to get back to researching his next book. Still, lucky for us - here’s another interview with Gibson by Rick ‘Agony Column’ Kleffel, in audio form for your mobile media player pleasure.
Meanwhile, Vernor Vinge has been chatting to French science fiction site ActuSF (don’t worry, text in English) about his recent (and highly recommended) novel Rainbows End. [Both links via BoingBoing]
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Paul Raven @ 25-07-2007
In case you missed it, William Gibson is interviewed briefly over at Wired about his forthcoming novel, Spook Country … interviewed by grumpy comics genius Warren Ellis, no less, so a double-dose of win, as far as I’m concerned.
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Paul Raven @ 09-07-2007
Following on from the interview I linked to yesterday, it looks like the Gibsonian publicity engine is moving into high gear ahead of the release of his forthcoming novel, Spook Country - which esteemed genre critic John Clute has reviewed for SciFi.com. In a move that makes perfect sense for the man whose name will forever be associated with cyberpunk (whether he wants it that way or not), his publishers are using the metaverse as a promotional tool; as reported by UKSF Book News and Forbidden Planet, Second Life is going to be full of promotional events connected to the release of Spook Country. Just what I need - more reasons to hang about in SL instead of getting any real work done. If I were a published author, though, I could probably justify it as self-promotion - maybe Walter John Williams should add it to his list of ways to grow a Long Tail?
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Paul Raven @ 08-07-2007
There’s a good in-depth interview with William Gibson on the College Crier website, where Gibson talks about the ideas and motivations that have informed his writing over the years.
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I have a bad relationship with the movie industry - they have a terrible habit of taking books I love and murdering them on screen. I had a rant about it when I first heard someone had optioned William Gibson’s Neuromancer, but Jason Ellis has just pointed out the fact that they’re actually casting it already.