‘Neuromancer’ Gains Funding, Loses Vincenzo Natali
After many years in development, theNeuromancermovie has taken a big step forward by securing new funding. At the same time, though, it has lost directorVincenzo Natali, who’s been attached for the past five years. Get all the details on theNeuromancerVincenzo Natali news after the jump.
Screen Dailyreports Chinese company C2M Media Group has stepped up to co-develop and co-financeNeuromancerwith the UK-based GFM Films. With Natali gone, producerLucas Foster(Equilibrium,Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is in talks with new writers and a new director. No names have been revealed as of yet.
Based on the 1984 cyberpunk classic byWilliam Gibson,Neuromancerfollows a “console cowboy” (the fancy future term for “computer hacker”) called Case whose life and career were ruined after he was caught stealing from the wrong people. He’s offered a chance at redemption by a mysterious ex-military officer named Armitage.
Said Foster:
William Gibson’s books have been very prescient on the topic of Super Intelligence, which people variously call Machine Intelligence or A.I. As we surrender more and more of our thinking and imagining over to software, we lose something important and tangible in ourselves. Neuromancer tells the story of that (near) future.
Neuromancerhas been in development for several years. Around 2000,Chris Cunningham(director of the Aphex Twin “Windowlicker” video) was trying to get a film made. That version never took off, and in 2007Joseph Kahn(of the Taylor Swift “Bad Blood” video and the filmDetention) signed on to direct. Needless to say, that version didn’t come together either.
In 2010, Natali replaced Kahn. Initially, Natali’s hiring seemed to inspire some forward momentum. GFM announced the start of pre-production in 2011,Lorenzo di Bonaventurasigned on to produce in 2012, and big names likeMark WahlbergandLiam Neesonwere courted to star. And then nothing. Wahlberg and Neeson aren’t currently attached and neither is di Bonaventura.
It’s been a long time since we got any real updates on this project, so it’s unsurprising, if disappointing, to hear Natali has dropped out. But you don’t need to worry about him. He just recentlysigned on to helmIn the Tall Grass, based on a short story by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill.
