It has to do with stuff like The Matrix having beaten Neuromancer’s ideas to the punch on screen, of course (and I’ve read that William Gibson was a bit crestfallen that Blade Runner came out before Neuromancer anyway) but I know they’ve been trying to find a way to film it for a long time anyway. I guess it’s interesting to consider how they might update it, but they’d better get a GOOD screenwriter–strong “narrative” is not, not, NOT by any stretch of the imagination a forte of William Gibson’s–in fact, I more or less disliked seven out of eight of the other Gibson books I read because of it. (The good one was Idoru which is the middle part of a trilogy.) In fact, it’s not a forte of Neuromancer, either–the vibe, nova, style etc. was interesting enough upon re-reading the book that I didn’t mind that Gibson didn’t do a very good job telling his story.

If they ever make Snow Crash into a film (and remember, nothing by Neal Stephenson has been made into a movie yet) I hope they find a way to say that it’s set in 1992 (it isn’t), so it can have that 1992-ish vision of cyberspace that is easily the most interesting thing about that book.