And if I go around with you, you know that I get messed up, too

[venta]

No.... no... nooooooo.

This probably isn't going to be good, is it?

http://www.bureau42.com/view/11398/snow-crash-es-onto-film

(To clarify: I don't really know who Joe Cornish is. People keep saying he did Attack the Block, but that doesn't mean anything to me. Oh, and, er, apparently he's the Joe of Adam and Joe. That surprised me.

I just can't currently conceive of a film version of Snow Crash which doesn't suck.)

Comments

[zotz]

Could easily be a disaster. Probably, though, it just won't happen. Most films don't, and this one has already Not Happened at least once.

It will face the same problem as the alleged Neuromancer film - how not to look like a cheap Matrix knock-off. Of course, if the studios had got their fingers out and made them when they should have, this issue wouldn't arise.

[venta.livejournal.com]

My main gripe is that it's a very dense book; there's just a lot of stuff in it. The average book has to have so much cut out of it to make a film that I always feel there's a dimension missing. So I'm guessing they cut out the waffle about software development, mythology and glossolalia, major on the virtual reality and fights and... yeah. I guess we're basically into Matrix territory there. WIth some sort of nasty Indiana Jones bit for the clay tablet.

The page I linked to seems to focus on people wondering where they'll find an actor of (or resembling) Hiro's unusual ancestry, which was something I hadn't even thought of.

Of course, if the studios had got their fingers out and made them when they should have, this issue wouldn't arise.

Do you think they should have? Do you think something good would have come out the other end?

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Most likely they'd look like cheap Blade Runner knockoffs instead. I suppose I can imagine an alternate universe in which Keanu's best known for playing Hiro rather than Neo, but more likely it'd be another Johnny Mnemonic.
(but of course I'm not listening anyhow)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't think it rains enough in Snow Crash-world ever to be mistaken for Blade Runner :)

And one kudo to you, sir.

[zotz]

IIRC Gibson reckons that JM was trashed in the editing, and the film the director shot could have been a good one. Ah, here we go:

"Basically what happened was it was taken away and re-cut by the American distributor in the last month of its pre-release life, and it went from being a very funny, very alternative piece of work to being something that had been very unsuccessfully chopped and cut into something more mainstream."

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing though, Blade Runner was cut to shit and even in its cut form was a great film. Given how pants Jonny Mnemonic was, I question the accuracy of Gibson's assertion. Surely some of the greatness would have made it past the cutting room floor if there were any to be found in the first place.

[zotz]

More likely than if they do it now, I suspect.

something I hadn't even thought of

Stephenson had. He reckoned Roland Gift, who I'd guess is way too old after the extra couple of decades.

[venta.livejournal.com]

He reckoned Roland Gift

Whooo?

Oh yeah, him out the FYC. I could see that. I'm not sure I'm really that bothered about the character being exactly the right ethnicity as some people seem to be, though.

[zotz]

IIRC he wasn't hung up on it being exactly (which Gift isn't, as far as I can tell) but thought plausibly mixed-race and able to act (presumably he was impressed by Sammy And Rosie Get Laid) was a good combination.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I thought Gift was terrible in that film! He just stood around looking like a preening piece of wallpaper. Even Keanu would have been better.

(Still, each to their own I guess. Maybe Stephenson just likes that kind of wallpaper.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, too much stuff to cram into a film, which good bits will they jettison? I wonder if the nam-shub of Enki will make the cut. Plot-necessary, you'd think, but would need a lot of screen time to explain properly.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

You'd think the nam-shub would be critical, but then I'd never have expected a film of Watchmen to miss out the giant pyschic squid, either...

(Having said that, I did think Watchmen was a pretty credible effort within the parameters of trying to cut down a massive book and squash it relentlessly into a film.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

It was pretty credible, mm.

(Although saying that, I watched it with people who hadn't read the book, and they really struggled to make any sense of what was going on. I think they felt the squashing, and hence density, a lot more than I did being already familiar with the material.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. On reflection, I don't think I'd have had the same "aaargh! no!" reaction to an announcement about a film of Neuromancer. I'd still be pretty wary of them breaking a book I like, but I think it lends itself much more easily to cinematic treatment.

My overall impression of Neuromancer is much more visual, where Stephenson's prose is very explain-y in between the action scenes. Unless they make YT into Dr Watson and have Hiro explain masses of stuff to her, I don't know how they're going to get all the necessary bits of info to the viewer.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

There are parts of Snow Crash that are very cinematic. The Deliverator, the finale (which IMHO is a bit lame, but there you go), pretty much anything that happens on the water, the rock concert, Aleuts on submarines, all of these things could translate very well to the big screen. Snow Crash the movie could not be Snow Crash the book, but then Blade Runner wasn't "Androids", either. It could work.

Na na na na na na na na na

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Argh, earworm from hell. Crash.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Sorry!

And I'm afraid you don't even get a kudo, because you were narrowly beaten by phlebas.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Attack the Block was a surprisingly good film. Emphasis on the surprising. It has a terrible premise and yet the result is a rather charming little action movie.

Snow Crash does seem as though it's going to need a lot of cuts to fit, but I still have some hope it could end up watchable. My main concern is that it probably wanted to be released before The Matrix, because it's going to struggle not to look a bit derivative in places.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Whereas I can see the Matrix-a-like risks (see above) I'm not sure it needs to look like a cheap rip-off. The Metaverse is very different to the Matrix - people know they're in it, they willingly engage with it, they don't typically totally lose the thread of what's happening to their real-body when they're in it. The Metaverse was created by its own users (or some of them) rather than some despotic alien culture, is distinguishable from reality, and can't kill you. Sure there are also similarities, but I think there's enough fundamental difference in the premise that a film could be made that seemed different.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all points. Mainly I was thinking of the Kendo stuff, which is inevitably going to be a big deal because it's a film and big, visually striking fights are very film-friendly.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Although you could do a nice, visually-striking job of cutting back and forth between him sword-fighting and jumping about on a shipping container wielding a crowbar :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

That would rock! OK, tell you what, you can direct it instead. :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Also... from a personal point of view, I'm not sure "watchable" is good enough.

V for Vendetta was (apparently) a pretty good and watchable film. Didn't mean I was happy with it ;)

In fact, I'm just coming to the conclusion I should never watch films based on books I like. They make me bitey.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Yup, there's no way it'll be as good as the book.

This never bothers me. After all, there are no films as good as my favourite books, so that would be setting the bar unreasonably high!

[venta.livejournal.com]

It does bother me, though I concede quite irrationally. Especially when the resulting film is so unlike the book that I wonder why they bothered (The Eagle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034389/), I'm looking at you).

Go ahead and make films - watchable or otherwise - but think of your own damn plots! Stop taking my books, ripping their entrails out, and hanging a dessicated mask-wearing husk on a cinema screen!

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Unless you're Blade Runner?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I enjoyed Blade Runner, but then it was so incredibly unlike the book I barely registered that it was based thereon :) Also, I am not that attached to the book.

However, even there I did get mildly annoyed by things that had been cut out - it was quite odd to base the are-you-a-real-human test on scenarios like "A friend gives you a leather wallet..." without ever explaining why leather is supposed to provoke an extreme reaction. Or indeed that it is supposed to provoke an extreme reaction.

So yes, I think the summary is that Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is not one of *my* books :)