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Concept Artwork For Snowcrash? 146

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wouldn't-it-be-nice dept.
onethumb writes: "Looks like an artist has been commissioned to do some concept artwork for Snowcrash, a movie adaptation of Neal Stephenson [?] 's book " Obviously we have no confirmation, and the artist says he messed up and did a "Real" city instead of a metaverse one, but regardless, it's the first I've heard of a Snowcrash [?] movie. There's some other cool stuff on that site too, but the images aren't quite high enough resolution to qualify for Rob's First Rule of Art [?] ;)
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Concept Artwork For Snowcrash? More

Concept Artwork For Snowcrash?

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  • The big question is (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    How will they handle the sex scene with the 15 year-old girl? Film it in Europe where such things are legal? This is a serious question, as anyone who's read the book knows!

  • Re: "Zion" (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ahem. "Zion" means "sunny mount." It is literally meant to be the south-west hill of Jersusalem. Sometimes "Zion" is used to denote the entirety of Jerusalem, or occasionally the Jewish homeland. Hershel, for example, called himself a Zionist.

    In related news, _The Matrix_ did not get the name "Nebuchandezzar" from that book in _Barton Fink_.
  • s/I think that it's/I think that/;

    Stupid brain not functioning this early...

    --
  • They don't have to rent an aircraft carrier. Remember all those TV specials about the special FX on Titanic? They could make the Raft the same way.
  • Craig Mullins (the artist), also did some Myth 2 art for Bungie that made its way into print ads for the game (and the Linux version's CD IIRC).

  • I saw one picture; it seemed to look too blade-runner-esque to be the world of Snow Crash, which is much more of a topsy-turvy version of the real world (it actually seemed to accomplish Max Headroom's motto of "Fifteen minutes into the future!").

    It didn't seem to be like the Metaverse to me either; for some odd reason, I imagine the Metaverse as being lower res than that, unless you're in a building.


  • The movie made from Eaters of the Dead was The Thirteenth Warrior. It was good, but the fact that they went through three directors trying to make it showed. They had one guy who ran up a huge budget, then had two other people trying to fix it up, one of whom was Crichton himself. IMHO if Crichton had the job of doing it all the way through it might have been better; he's done some directoral work, and has a good reputation at actually bringing stuff in without bloating the budget.

    The only thing I can remember, however, is the movie Runaway...


  • You mean you people never figured out that L. Bob Rife was a parody of (among other people) H. Ross Perot? I think he probably also works for L. Ron Hubbard and maybe Ted Turner... hmm, I'll ahave to think about that one.


  • Isn't the CEO of MCI WorldCom also a Pentecostal fundamentalist of some sort?
  • The world of Snow Crash didn't have "cities" to speak of, or countries. Just a mosaic of soveigrn "burbs" off of the many highways.

    The virtual city wasn't really a city either, it was one main street filled with banner ads for porn, and the rest of the planet was mooth empty roundness.
  • The Cyberpunk movies have hithertofore sucked because their respective studios refused to take them seriously.

    I mean, Keanu Reeves is an ok actor, but the only reason to ever cast him is if you intend for effects, and not acting, to carry the story.

    Snow Crash the best cyberpunk book of all time. Whoever picks it up needs to give the project the directing, money, and acting talent it deserves.

    How about Mira Sorvino as Y.T.?
    A black-asian actor would probably be impossible to come by, Hiro would probably just have to be black.
  • Hoo!

    I love it!
    "Peter The Kitty" is my new desktop wallpaper.
  • They don't have to make Y.T. 15, she can be 18.

    For that matter, where are they going to get a black/asian actor to play Hiro?
  • They could make it enough unlike the Matrix by not giving everything a greenish tint, and by not including any scenes of exploding tile and masonry.

    Matrix II: More Exploding Tile
  • David Lynch wanted a mini series for Dune, and originally that is what the producers gave him. Then they screwed him over and forced him to do it as a movie, it's not a project he's very proud of. There are a lot of movies ruined by executives, Fifth Element is another (was supposed to have been four hours).
  • Has anyone else looked at that picture of the Lincoln [goodbrush.com]? I'm having a hard time convincing myself it's not a photograph.
  • Not only that, I remember seeing this same image on this same site months ago, maybe even as long ago as a year.

  • Wow. (Score:1)

    by BJH ( 11355 )

    This is the same guy that did this piece [goodbrush.com] of Marathon artwork. Note that he wasn't paid for this - he did it because he wanted to.

  • Well, the name has been around for longer than that, since it's often used to refer to the Jewish homeland. I'm not sure when it was first used for that, but I'm pretty sure it was before the 1970s. I'm not actually Jewish, though, so my interpretation of the meaning of this may be a little imprecise.

  • That's how I felt about the Dune movie. I mean, it's wasn't bad or anything, but Dune (the book) works on such a huge scale that it would be impossible to do a faithful translation of the book in less that 6 hours.

    They're doing a Dune miniseries right now here in Europe. Running time: 6 hours....
  • This is probably the mini-series the Sci Fi Channel will be showing this fall. Here's a link to the information they've published on their Web site:

    Exactly, that's the one I mean.
  • I had a discussion about Neal Stephenson with my roommate last October about his books and possible movies, and how great it could be if it was done right.

    I believe that they were trying to do it, but the last i heard it wasn't happening and probably will never happen. :(

    Cryptonomicon would be great on the screen too I think.

  • Yep, I agree wholeheartedly. I was about to post the same thing but I see that you have already done it. Please Moderate this up, up, up.

    Anime would be the only thing that could handle all the movie in all its glory, without really breaking a sweat. The only problem is that they probably wouldn't want to make multiple 2hr episodes (although that would be Great) so you would still have problems with much of the story details having to be cut out. No problems finding your Hiro (pun) or Y.T./Raven stuff.

    BTW: Anyone find Y.T. in The Diamond Age.

  • Oh no, it had cities. It's true that countries were somewhat gone, but it would be better to say that countries were on the same playing field as businesses (sound like today?)

    The average joe didn't live in the city, and Hiro was a citizen of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, but he lived in a storage box in the city. There was even a little spiel about how the players still lived in the city, while everyone else retreated to the burbs.

    The Metaverse, in fact, was especially a city. Most big cities are just one main street filled with banner ads with porn--until Disney comes along; then the banner ads sell mouse merchandise.

    The reason that there was empty roundness on the Metaverse wasn't that it was sparsely populated, but that it had vastly greater surface area than the earth, and nearly everyone was just in the central "city
  • Roland Gift is the name I think you're looking for.
  • What I've always wanted to know is: why didn't Stephenson go ahead, after the book was published and became a hit, and make a graphic novel and/or CD-ROM game to go with the book? I seem to recall an author's note at the back explaining that he originally wanted to do this as a comic book, but couldn't....

    The writing style and action in _Snow Crash_ seem perfect for storyboards/ comic panels, but I don't think I actually want to see those images moving on a screen.

    What's more, as someone else pointed out, they've kinda been beaten to the punch by _The Matrix_. Anyone who hasn't read _Snowcrash_ and sees a movie of it will think: "ah, here's a computer-based sci-fi movie with some badass guys in leather who are constantly making references to Babylonian gods."

    "Sumerian."

    "Whatever."

    The point being that they'll either end up with a movie executive who _has_ read the book and thinks its the best -- someone with a lot of power and enthusiasm to make it happen -- or a cheap-ass studio that just wants to get a piece of Warner's pie. The latter will not do _Snow Crash_ justice, and the former will probably end up being some power-crazy hack like Lucas or DePalma.
  • I know this is now very off-topic (go ahead, waste your moderation points on a fifth-level post...I've got the karma to spare, guys), but I'd like to say this once:

    Everyone always complains about _Dune_. Some say Lynch is at fault. Some say Dino DeLaurentis is at fault. Everyone agrees that it sucks.

    What no one seems to care about, or maybe know about, is that Lynch's deal with DeLaurentis was this: "I'll do _Dune_," (which DeLautentis had been wanting to do ever since the late 60s, I believe) "if you give me adequate funding for a movie of my own."

    That movie was _Blue Velvet_.

    The suffering of _Dune_ fans who demand a cinematic product is a fair trade for _Blue Velvet_, I think.

    So, every time you see a piece of crap like _M2M_ or _Dune_, cross your fingers and hope that _someone_ involved with this movie will profit enough to make something cool, be it a movie, game, clock, whatever.
  • Oh my GOD! Bill Gates reads /.! HE'S ON TO US!!!

  • I got halfway through and gave up. The plot is a string of cliches and the writing style is dull and incredibly patronising. It was like reading a cyberpunk roleplaying manual adapted for pensioners.

    Stopping the story to spend page after page rambling on about a futurist idea is not a good way to write SF, especially if those ideas were done to death a decade ago.
  • yeah. how the heck are they going to show a 15 year old girl having sex with an older man ? or the gooey parts (the dentata) ? or the carrier enterprise as a raft for refugees ? or the guy with the wires stuck into his brain or getting his head chopped off ? The movie will probably get a triple X rating if made properly. more likely they'll turn it into a mission to mars rehash.
  • to show the sex scene you have to show her vagina and his penis. big no no for an R rating. the dentata piercing the guys sensitive region aint gonna be shown.
  • How will they handle the sex scene with the 15 year-old girl? Film it in Europe where such things are legal? This is a serious question, as anyone who's read the book knows!

    They can easily work around this.

    I submit the latest Lolita, Porkies, etc, etc, etc.

    George
  • When I was in Chapters just two days ago, I punched up Diamond Age (also by Neal Stephenson), and the caption beside it said that Snowcrash had been optioned for film. I am glad to hear that it looks like it is going ahead, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time... BTW: Does anyone know when Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is due out in the theaters? That was another excellent read.
  • Gwen stefani should be hung.

    If anyone put her in snow crash I would feel obligated to firebomb the studio. Her and the whole shiftless pseudo-ska genre should be lined up and shot.

    Besides, she is 'so last century'. Casting would select someone more hip like that kirsten dunst girl from drop dead gorgeous...

  • First Neuromancer, then Snow Crash! NO!!! Books that I love, being put on the chopping block like this. Snow Crash has been an influence on my lifestyle. I can't even count the times I've stomped my brakes and cursed at 'fucking Bimbo boxes' on the highway...

    Snow Crash (and Neuromancer, for that matter) was one of those books that FELT like a movie while I read it. Reflecting on it now, I feel like I've seen the perfect movie version already, because Stephenson's characters were so vivid. Anything they do with this story will disappoint me, and many others, I'm sure.

    The one genre that I've thought would be able to handle films like Snow Crash (or Neuromancer) would be anime. Busting Snow Crash into 3 2-hour animated episodes would be great. I'd prefer it was voiced in English, but it'd look awesome as anime.

    Oh, well... Who'd listen to me. I'd write a screenplay for an animated Show Crash, but having no artistic skills, I couldn't storyboard it. W/o storyboards, I don't think it's the kind of idea that would sell. Besides, the novel really doesn't need a lot of adaptation. (I can think of a few things that might need to be tamed a little for U.S. audiences... Y.T. and Raven's sex scene, potentially some violence.)

    Picture it in your mind-- the stereotypical quickly-scrolling-background-art of many an anime production, w/ the magna-poon whipping thru the foreground and sticking on the back of a minivan... Picture it. Ahhh...

  • Artist (Score:1)

    by jadin ( 65295 )
    I recognize those pictures, those are from Craig Mullins, (think Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity) And that picture has been up for at least a year, if not 2. That should give you a good idea on the time frame...
  • Maybe the movie is allready done, but is shown only in Japan [slashdot.org] ... :)

  • Get the masterwork [glyphs.com] NOW !

    it is the MOST upset cat I have EVER saw ...

  • Wow..

    You're so VERY clever.

    Go to YahooChat if you want to try that moronic shit.

  • <sigh> It sounds like a great idea...it really does...

    But, the Sumerian parts, vital, I feel, to the story, would baffle and confound Joe-six-pack. It would come off as 'The Fifth Element' did: "sublime, but fruity."

    What I'm trying to say is, like many truly great novels, Hollywould (heh) will leave it a MTV-infected shell of it's former self. I'd rather see it not exist than as a movie.

    On the other hand, the reason I saw 'Sphere' was to see the jellyfish attack on a fifty-foot screen. Maybe I can find something worthwhile out of this.

    At any rate, let's just hope they don't catch wind of 'The Diamond Age.' <shudder> I don't think I could bear to see what they would do to it. It's just far too dear of a story to me.

  • Maybe the best format would be some sort of serial release on the internet. Every week, release another 3-5 minute segment in mpg. At the end, re-render in high quality and release the DVD.

    Or even more fun, write a 3D game-type engine, release the models + engine and script each episode/chapter.

    I wonder who currently owns the internet/game rights to Snow Crash?
  • Also, if you don't mind Anime, you should have a look at Ghost in the Shell [amazon.com].


    I heard something somewhere that this film was an inspritation to the guys who made the Matrix.


  • Looks like wishful thinking to me.

    numb
  • I don't know, something about this just seems wrong to me. I will distrust this until I get confirmation from some actual movie studio.

    Besides, I agree that any Snow Crash movie couldn't do credit to the book. The time constraints alone make that impossible - there is much much much more than two hours worth in Snow Crash.
  • Actually one actor sprang IMMEDIATELY to mind for Hiro. I dont know his name but he had a small part at the beginning of Fifth Element, on the ill-fated ship that discovered the dark star or whatever you'd like to call it. I also recall him in a Chemical Brothers video, and several TV spots peppered all over English TV for the 2 months I lived there in 1997. Anyone know who I'm talking about? I THINK he may be a model. Slim, dark skinned, very almond-shaped eyes. Gee, seems like ALL I saw on TV that summer was Radiohead videos, Chemical Brothers videos, and topless darts... very strange country, that is.
  • the 15 year old Y.T. would not only be hard to cast, but would have to have sex with a giant mutated Aluet twice her age

    I have a suspicion that that would be lost somewhere. My bet is they would write in a Y.T./Hiro affair - I mean, Juanita (the character I most identified with btw) has a very minor part, and Y.T./Raven just doesn't fit what they'd imagine the audience would want to see in terms of fireworks.

    Ugh.

  • If there was a movie adaptation of Snow Crash, I'd almost be afraid to see it. I'd be horribly scared to think of how much it would be butchered to fit the constraints of time and money...

    That's how I felt about the Dune movie. I mean, it's wasn't bad or anything, but Dune (the book) works on such a huge scale that it would be impossible to do a faithful translation of the book in less that 6 hours.

    Jursasic Park + Lost World, when compared to the books, were crap (of course the only thing the book the Lost World had with the movie was the name...). Seems like all of Michael Chriton's (sp?) books attract people who like to make crappy movies (except The Andromeda Strain, that was OK). Did anyone see the movie that was based on Eaters of the Dead? I don't think the movie was called that though. It had Antonio Banderas, came out last fall or so?
  • What do _you_ think the Metaverse looks like? How about the Ringworld? Rama?

    The Shire/Smaug/The Balrog of Moria? Dune and/or a mile long Sandworm? (Yes, there was a Dune movie (maybe two?) and I didn't think it was very good (though also not terrible)).

    Rama... if done correctly, that would be a movie to rival the original Star Wars (at least IMHO). Especially if they did the whole set of books as a series of movies. Doing the stuff where they're floating in zero G along the axis when all of a sudden the lights come on would be at least several million dollars in SX though...
  • They make her 21 or something, and have her played by someone who looks more like an ass-kicking cyber-ninja than teenage jailbait.

    Yeah, but I think that would take away a LOT of the character of the relationship between Hiro and YT. Not to mention the fact that a large portion of the plot relies on her being a teenage skateboard courier (for instance, when she's sent to deliver packages to Uncle Enzo, the US government, and L. Bob Rife's church). Also that's how she manages to save herself from L. Bob Rife. It would be a lot better for the plot if they just incapacitated Raven in some other way.

    This is reminding me I need to go get that new book of his, too.
  • They're doing a Dune miniseries right now here in Europe. Running time: 6 hours....

    Hey, cool. Hopefully us here in the US will get to see it. :)
  • I can't even count the times I've stomped my brakes and cursed at 'fucking Bimbo boxes' on the highway...
    Yup, and all the studly (sp?) the testostone boys at my highschool.

    The one genre that I've thought would be able to handle films like Snow Crash (or Neuromancer) would be anime. Busting Snow Crash into 3 2-hour animated episodes would be great. I'd prefer it was voiced in English, but it'd look awesome as anime.
    YES! Stephenson was going to do a computer game of it wasnt he? I think it would do much better if it stayed totaly unreal, you just can not convay the feelings and images I got from the book with actors, no matter how much you spend on SFX (come on, prove me wrong!)

    Picture it in your mind-- the stereotypical quickly-scrolling-background-art of many an anime production, w/ the magna-poon whipping thru the foreground and sticking on the back of a minivan... Picture it. Ahhh...
    Stop, dont make me cum :)

    The UberNerd [ubernerd.org]
  • Does anyone have any info on this DA movie? The books rock (you already know that) but thats gonna be one heck of a feat to put all that on film.

  • This is probably the mini-series the Sci Fi Channel will be showing this fall. Here's a link to the information they've published on their Web site:

  • Nice art.. I like the futuristic-techno-insdustrial style.

    I wonder if it is possible to get poster sized prints of his work?

  • Okay, _someone_ is going to ask this, so why not me: If you were casting the roles, who would play the characters? I'm having a hard time thinking of them, mostly because I don't know any young Asian actors for the role of Hiro, old menacing looking Eskimos, or any hot little 14 year olds now that Natalie Portman is done. So...who would you cast?
  • Hey, look at it this way. If they get rich enough they might launch off into space only to get shot down by a passing World War II fighter plane.

    Wait, that's not so good when you think about it.

    ----
    Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
  • Speaking of "On-again, off-again"... the HHG movie's still in script-writing. Ah well. It *IS* Douglas Adams writing it, so it can be forgiven. Several times in fact.

    ----
    Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
  • Agreed, 100%. But then, what movie adaptation doesn't suffer from this? And if you're looking for something even harder to adapt than Snowcrash, it's being done: The Lord of the Rings. [imdb.com]

    John
  • Apologies to all Jewish people out there. Yes, you are right. How did I forget my history leasons! Zionism was the movement for a Jewish homeland, thus "Zion" must have come way earlier than any anime series! Hmmm...it seems like Zion seems to be so readily adopted by the sci-fi community because it is a funky name.
  • On the note of The Matrix lifting the name Zion from the SnowCrash, any Anime fan could point out that the name Zion itself actually originates from the anime series "Gundam" which has been around since the 1970's! In the legendary and revolutionary Mecha series, Zion is the name of the Duchy which invades Earth.
  • If you look on this website [slashdot.org], (My definite source for what's going on with movies.) you'll see the following timeline for Snow Crash's development:

    September, 1996... Marco Brambilla is announced to direct the Snow Crash adaptation. [Info and project annoucement courtesy of 'shape'.]

    December 2, 1996... Jeffrey Nachmanoff lands the gig to adapt Stephenson's novel. Variety magazine quotes Nachmanoff that he believes the book is "...about the disintergration of American society in the information age." Nachmanoff hopes to start fresh on his take of the story; other screenwriters had turned in previous drafts of the work with no one ever advancing the status of the project. [Scoop sent in by 'shape' and 'pkalapa'; some material acknowledged to Variety.]

    October 21, 1997... Nothing new has been reported about the development of the project, except for this one scoop we received: "The project is dead." With nothing new to report of in months the film may very well be trapped in limbo. [Scoop submitted anonymously.]

    The project's been reported dead for nearly 2 1/2 years now. The art you have is probably from WAY back.


  • I'm waiting for the sequel, "blue screen crash," where the computer spews apparently random garbage on the screen, in turn causing the user to utter gibberish in an ancient mesopotamian language, phrases like "chkdsk" and "mem/d"; and partake insidiously in a cult centered around Redmond WA....

  • *sigh*. Hopefully meta-moderation will catch it.
  • UNfortunately those would be the easy things and I have no experience with this book however there are plenty of ways to do sex scenes in a movie. Need someone who looks 15 but is 20? Not to big of a problem..

    What is the big deal you never seen surgery or a decapitation in a movie. I seen it more than I really care to admit. Final destination showed an entire decapitation. It was only an R. You have a good bit of liberty with an R Rating as a director/producer.

    Jeremy

  • Well I was talking to a friend in the movie buisness and he said that there have been several scripts writtin, and the all suck. (Then he told me how he thought it was easy to adapt scripts from booka, until he tried. I guess it's actually quite difficult.) And that they have basicly have stopped trying. Which really sucks, Judge looks a little beefy for the part in my eyes, the Fine young cannibals guy would do pretty well. As long as they took care of his bald spot! YT would have to be the same age, if she wouldn't it would screw everything up. Would she live with her mom at the age of 21? well, that takes the FBI out of the story. But I would love a great Snowcrash movie. I still have hope.
  • It would be amusing (in an evil overlord sense) if they could create the snow crash effect in a movie. This said, there is is a very funny comp.basilik faq in one of the 1999 December issues of Nature in the "futures" section. Online you have to be a subscriber, but you can get hard copy at a public library. (basilik's being visual images that cause the viewer to crash. as seen in all sorts of SFnal writings: Snow Crash natch, a short story in The Mind's I with a Godelian sentence for humans(iirc?), Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone by Ian McDonald, etc etc) sh
  • I've learned not to get excited over this stuff. Good books just never(maybe rarely) make the transition to the movies. With Snow Crash, just look at the amount of content and plots in the book, its just to much for a movie. And alot of the content would take too much time to explain to the viewer of a movie. Is it just me, or are most book2movie conversions just dumbed down versions of the book?
  • how are they gonna do anything in this book besides hire people to play the few non-computer generated scenes? but woowee wouldn't it be fun to try? no wonder it took so long for a snow crash film to get going eh?... probably waiting for the filmtech to catch up. anyone know how much $$$ they're throwing at this project? With a lot of money and a lot of CG animation lovin', maybe they'll do justice to the nuclear powered portable depleted uranium needle firing gatling gun (named REASON in the book for the unwashed). and YT's skateboard should be neato++. I wonder who'll they'll get to play Uncle Enzo? or Hiro? and duh anyone who hasn't read it, should. rooting for the movie peeps... -x
  • SnowCrash is definately one of the best Cyber Punk books i have ever read. To bad the movie is garunteed to suck. We need more Cyber Punk!!!!
  • Aw crud!.... I'd heard David Bowie was gonna play Elrond. If they'd gotten that, it would've made the movie sooo cool, no matter how much of a turkey it was.
  • The film industry WILL make this movie.

    I'm sure they'll listen to reason.

    CmdrTaco, Take off your cloths and show hollywood your butt.

  • we need s'more good cyberpunk movies! Stupid sci-fi like Mission to Mars just make the entire genre look bad. Plus, cyberpunk is the coolest! Maybe now they'll start making some of Gibson's stuff into movies...
  • But I had to say that I think the idea of a Snowcrash adaptation could be really cool.
  • I heard Stephenson speak on his book tour for Cryptonomicon last year. He started out responding to some FAQs, including (quoted from memory):

    Q: Are any of your books being made into movies?
    A: No significant work is being done on any movie projects at this time.

    That at least was the gist...

  • When I first read the book I saw Brandon Lee in the Hiro Protagonist role. I don't think he was dead at the time. I suppose casting him now might be difficult :(

    What's really scary is that when they come to cast Raven Hollywood execs probably won't look any further than the WWF...

  • YT is like 14 in the book.

    I just don't see Gwen playing a young teen and pulling it off!

    And..I think YT's age is pretty important in terms of her overall character development.

  • Phil is completely right about bits & pieces of H Ross Perot and Ted Turner showing up in L Bob Rife...But the whole issue of him being a pseudo-religious/cult leader, the name, and the fact that he floated around on The Raft (L Ron and his cronies in Scientology used to float around in international waters to avoid the IRS) are clearly L Ron influenced.
  • ...I think that it's a lot of what makes the book great is the narrative. For example, the part where it's talking about being a bad-ass motherfucker, and how Raven's nuclear umbrella has put the world title just out of reach. (I think that's pretty much a direct quote, but I don't have the book handy, so I'm not sure.) If you take stuff like that out, you lose a big part of the book. I think to preserve that, there would have to have some form of narration along with the action. That would probably be pretty awkward, though ... depending on how it was done, anyway.

    --

  • I think Neal Stephenson said he imagines Hiro as looking like that guy whose name I can't remember, but was the lead singer of Fine Young Cannibals. He was even on Highlander a couple times, but I don't know how well he handled a sword... (his character got an arm chopped off, though.)

  • The Rastafarians adopted Zion before Gundam.
    The Rastas identified themselves with the Hebrews
    of the Old Testament, seeing themselves as Jah's
    true Chosen People; consequently they borrowed
    from Jewish religious terminology (well, what they
    could find in common literature; I don't think there were too many Rastafarian Cabbalists or anysuch). As such, Rastafarians used the word "Zion" as their promised land, as many Bob Marley songs attest to.
  • They make her 21 or something, and have her played by someone who looks more like an ass-kicking cyber-ninja than teenage jailbait.
  • Anyone else care to check in on actor choices and/or how to deal with the size without causing massive CRC errors in the story?

    It isn't going to happen. Hollywood is in the business of selling to the largest possible audience. Since the demise of mid-list films in the 80s, they don't release anything unless it can be sold to a broad audience. And a few thousand hard-core scifi geeks wouldn't cut it.

    Besides the story being too long, parts of it are unworkable (the sex scene, for example; hints at underage sex are OK in an arthouse film but would seem prurient in a scifi blockbuster), or unmarketable (the whole "nam shub of Enki" thing would either have to be dumbed down tremendously into a sort of Ghostbusters metaphysics or else done away with altogether, if they're going to not bore non-fan audiences (and reviewers) waiting for the next SFX sequence).

    It's sort of like the much dreaded film of Neil Gaiman's Sandman books, which for a while looked like a Morpheus-vs.-Corinthian action blockbuster. There would be no way to make it true to the story and meet mass-market goals. Mercifully, though, there's no indication that it will ever see the light of day.
  • Yes, and I'm surprised that after the success of The Matrix that no one has tried to adapt any more of the prominent works of cyber* SF to cinema.

    There's a whole list of good candidates, which would only suffer the same obstacles to the translation as any other genre: too many plot threads, too long, they'd just screw it up, etc.

    Personally, I thought Islands in the Net would make an excellent translation to the big screen. It's not as flashy-FX-laden as other stories, but offers plenty of opportunities to work in cyber [ghod I hate that term] elements in a plot that otherwise could have a lot of appeal to the non-SF fan.

    OK, so it's just me. [shrug]

  • Actually, there's a Museum of Bad Art...Works retrieved from the dumpsters outside of art schools, mostly. You can visit it here [glyphs.com]. I laughed so hard I nearly puked when I first came across it. :)

    In the meantime, don't be so down on this guy. He tells you upfront that they are _early_ test sketches. Not final products.


    Bowie J. Poag
    Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (Moving to MetaLab/UNC!)
  • I am lucky enough to live five miles from the meatspace MOBA, which is located in the basement of the Dedham Community Theater, just outside the restrooms. The art is a hoot, but the commentary that goes with it is what really makes it all special. If you find yourself in the Boston area, I strongly encourage you to pay a visit to the MOBA.
  • And then there's the similarity to Waterworld.

    I think another problem is the long, long passages in the book explaining the Sumerian folklore. It was interesting but a real drag on the plot (while being essential for it). It's hard for me to see how that would either translate to film, or how a film could leave out that information.

  • Underage sex shouldn't be a problem. Did you see American Beauty? That borders on pedophilia in osme people's opinion.
  • I agree, here's one for you Trek fans [goodbrush.com] (like me)

    I was looking for a "buy this print", but couldn't find one.

    --

  • While we're on the topic, it might be of interest that a screenplay for Vernor Vinge's seminal work True Names [zip.com.au] was adapted as a screenplay last year and may eventually go into production sometime. (it's also finally getting republished [amazon.com])

  • Hiro - Christopher Judge (Teal'c on Stargate-SG1)

    Since I first saw him in that show, I've been thinking how perfect he would be as Hiro in a Snow Crash movie. As for the length of the book, I'd like to see it done as Lucas says Star Wars was done. Take one huge story, and break it up into managable chunks, making each chunk its own movie. The only problem is I can't really remember a point where things slow down enough to wait for the sequel...

    Anyone else care to check in on actor choices and/or how to deal with the size without causing massive CRC errors in the story?
  • Whether the adaption of "Snowcrash" comes to fruition or not, there is always that danger in adapting "cult" books like "Snowcrash" (OK, you might disagree with my loose use of cult, but you get the idea). The only way it will work is by somehow creating a perfect movie, because any way you do it, I can guarantee you're going to have a legion of pissed off fans of the book, angry at the adaption. "Johnny Mnemonic" anyone? (Yeah, it was a bad movie any way you look at it.....a bit of a loaded example).

    Worst of all is adapting a sci-fi novel, as the image presented is _never_ going to match what people visualise by the text itself....What do _you_ think the Metaverse looks like? How about the Ringworld? Rama? (Yeah "Bladerunner" was an awesome adaption of "Do androids dream of electric sheep", but the novel was more about atmosphere anyway....and though a cool novel, it didn't quite have the status of "Snowcrash" at the time - feel free to disagree with me here).

    Anyway, if the "Neuromancer" and "Snowcrash" projects end up coming to fruition, I hope they kick ass. Classic sci-fi films are generally thin on the ground.....

    Cheers,
    SuperG
  • Can you say "rewrite"? Probably just one reason why the movie would suck.
    Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
  • Sometimes casting outside of a character's original age is fine. But in the case of YT, I think changing her age with creative casting would either look really silly, or she'd be a whole different character than the book.

    Juliet as depicted in the play is far more mature than a 12 year old girl is in this day and age, so casting up in that case makes sense. With Kyle in Dune (which I hated), the 10 year difference is fairly insignificant..

    But with YT, the whole young, naive, brash part of her is what makes the character work. It would look silly having a 20+ actress playing that part, IMO.

  • Re:The OTHER reason SnowCrash won't get made (Score:3)

    by acb ( 2797 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @07:24PM (#1181550) Homepage

    The story is complex, the sets would have to be extremely expensive and/or digital ala Episode1,
    the Uneducated Masses would think it was a rip-off of The Matrix...

    If anything, that would doubly damn the Neuromancer [neuromancer.org] film project, as The Matrix lifts most of the names from there (the Matrix itself, Zion (without the funky rasta back-story), &c.) Well, at least Neo (k3wl name d00d) and Trinity aren't named Case and Molly..

    But another thing to consider is that large portions of the book are a thinly veiled jab at L Ron Hubbard (AKA L Bob Rife).

    Other than the name I don't see much similarity. Hubbard's a pulp scifi author who founded a kooky religion on a bet, whereas Rife seems to be an industrialist who rode in on the middle-American Christian power base. They could always just call him Bob L. Rife or something if the scienos complain.

  • A movie wouldn't do it justice (Score:3)

    by Gambit Thirty-Two ( 4665 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @04:30PM (#1181551)
    I think I speak for a lot of people when i say that a movie simply could NOT do Snow Crash justice.

    There are too many constraints which would pull down the potential of the movie. Cost of course being one, but time is the most important one. There is TOO much going on in the novel to cram it into 2 hours (2.5? 3? 5? 10? still not enough).

    If there was a movie adaptation of Snow Crash, I'd almost be afraid to see it. I'd be horribly scared to think of how much it would be butchered to fit the constraints of time and money...

    If it has to be done, I just hope they do it as best that they can; but to me it still won't be as good as it could be.
  • According to the most excellent Corona Films' Coming Attractions [corona.bc.ca] page on Snow Crash [corona.bc.ca].
    "Nothing new has been reported about the development of the project, except for this one scoop we received: "The project is dead." With nothing new to report of in months the film may very well be trapped in limbo. [Scoop submitted anonymously.].
    We'll see... stir up some interest!!!

  • Snow Crash was Supposed to be a Video Game (Score:4)

    by The Cunctator ( 15267 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @08:12PM (#1181553) Homepage
    When Stephenson began working on Snow Crash, he intended it to be a video game (super-interactive novel). Unfortunately, we're only getting to the point where that would be a plausibility. Or is that fortunately? If Ion Storm can succeed at Deus Ex [ionstorm.com], someone can succeed at Snow Crash...though Juanita's avatar tech is still a ways away (see Pixar's advances [pixar.com] in this realm [siggraph.org]!)

    Speaking of Pixar, it's always easier to fake tech in a movie; you get to pre-render everything. Snow Crash would make a great movie without too much trouble, because of its many high-octane visual elements. Also: the political/social satire that runs rampant is surprisingly easy to do visually: just show the Uncle Nunzio Pizza billboard and you're done.

    Of course the movie would be radically different from the book, but it wouldn't be an insane adaptation like LotR--you just cut out the boring stuff, and you've got a whole bunch of cool action sequences. Stephenson's namshub mumbo-jumbo barely makes sense anyway (though it _nearly_ fits together quite neatly); the book could do with the bit of narrative tightening a movie would provide.

    Snow Crash is hobbled by the importance of Juanita to the outcome of the book, and her near-complete absence from the book. A rewrite that dealt with the narrative problems caused by her would be welcome. My suspicion is the whole rewrite issue is what's killing this project: the book, while amazingly cool and smart and readable and one of my all-time favorite books, is seriously flawed by its tenuously connected plot threads.

    Visually, the movie would be great in so many ways: the avatar world could be done anime-style [utexas.edu], the Sumerian backstory (if it even entered) could be covered in a killer animation sequence like that from Todd McFarlane's Do the Evolution video [sonymusic.com], etc.

    Stephenson deliberately drew on pop-culture ideas and imagery for the book, and took a lot from movies. Snow Crash could make a very good movie.

    It probably would make a better computer game, but I'm not convinced we really have the tech for it.

  • First you've heard? (Score:4)

    by Bill&nbsp;Gates ( 160654 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @04:23PM (#1181554)
    SnowCrash, like Neuromancer before it, has been an on-again, off-again, maybe-movie project for quite a number of years.

    You can find a bit of background on Corona's Coming Attractions site [corona.bc.ca]... They started reporting on it back in 1996, though there are very few updates.

  • The only acceptable ending (Score:5)

    by FascDot Killed My Pr ( 24021 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @05:02PM (#1181555)
    The only way I'd watch the movie is if they are faithful to the ending: all the characters appear on screen and say to each other "Well....I guess this is the end of the movie. I guess we'll just leave then."
    --

  • The OTHER reason SnowCrash won't get made (Score:5)

    by Bill&nbsp;Gates ( 160654 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2000 @04:48PM (#1181556)
    There's a few reasons SnowCrash is unlikely...

    The story is complex, the sets would have to be extremely expensive and/or digital ala Episode1, the Uneducated Masses would think it was a rip-off of The Matrix...

    But another thing to consider is that large portions of the book are a thinly veiled jab at L Ron Hubbard (AKA L Bob Rife).

    The Scientologists are pretty powerful in Hollywood...How do you think John Travolta managed to make what looks to be the huge stinking turd of this year... Battlefield Earth?

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