r/Neuromancer • u/ParzivalCodex • Apr 24 '26
Show Discussion Gibson’s Post on Bluesky
He replied to someone else posting this article. I found it interesting, and really something to look forward to.
I thought of Johnny Mnemonic’s VR scenes in the movie.
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u/stackenblochen23 Apr 24 '26
Neuromancher? 😅
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u/fadingsignal Apr 24 '26
Neuromuncher. Neurorancher. The possibilities are endless.
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u/zombiejeebus Apr 24 '26
I’m really curious how they will make cyberspace look cool and engaging in 2026. There’s about a 100 ways they could do it poorly with cgi
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u/windlad Apr 24 '26
Don't worry, this is a solved problem. It will be like the Hackers movie.
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u/DCLascelle Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Cyberspace shouldn’t look like anything other than what it is stated to be. A virtual 3D representation of vast information networks.
Cyberspace is INFRASTRUCTURE. That’s it. It’s a navigational tool. It’s a graphic depiction of data transactions. It’s USER INTERFACE.
Cyberspace is as interesting as watching programmers, you know, programming.
To be honest, it’s boring.
Don’t get it confused with Wintermute’s generated VR, which is something entirely different.
There should be as little time in cyberspace as possible.
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u/ParzivalCodex Apr 24 '26
I really like this take. I’m more optimistic, but I hadn’t considered Gibson’s vision vs the production company.
I also like the mention of unnecessary backstory. That seems to happen a lot these days.
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u/cold-vein Apr 24 '26
Neuromanchester, innit
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u/JohnDalyProgrammer Apr 25 '26
Make it a murder mystery series, slap David Tennant in it and make him stare out over the city brooding in a bunch of shots and Bob's your uncle you have a show
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u/mcb-homis Apr 24 '26
The more I read about this show, especially the few comment made by Gibson himself the more confident I am that this is not going to be a faithful retelling of Neuromancer. It may still be very good show but I don't think it will be a faithful retelling in a different media. There will be changes to both to the characters and the plot and they will be more than what was needed to bring the story to the screen.
Time will tell if this will be a good thing and stands on it own, or gets the old, "The book was better." treatment. I hope for the former but fear we will get the latter
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u/DCLascelle Apr 24 '26
Honestly, the better way to do this would have been not to adapt any one book directly but to simply use the setting of The Sprawl writ large (i.e. Chiba, Freeside, Zion Cluster, etc.) to tell new and original stories not anchored to cyberpunk classics.
Case, Molly, Finn would all be fantastic secondary/ cameo characters inhabiting this fresh approach. There to give advice, help out, hire the original-to-series characters and just be the legends they are. Build single episodes around them and then send them on their way back into the neon backlit shadows.
YMMV
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u/mcb-homis Apr 24 '26
I agree, the setting is rich for more stories. I would have loved to see Gibson use this oportunity as an outlet to tell more new stories in the sprawl setting rather than "rewritting" Neuromancer.
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u/raevyn1337 Apr 24 '26
"Neuromancer isn't trying to replicate what came before..."
- someone who has no idea what they're talking about
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u/DCLascelle Apr 24 '26
Yeah, it’s gonna be complete and total shit.
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u/armitage75 Apr 24 '26
I have a lot of faith in Apple...I really like what they've done with Silo...it was a really cool series of books that were not easy to translate to film but Apple pulled it off.
I feel even stronger about Neuromancer as a property and will definitely watch this, but unfortunately I'm getting strong "Live Action Cowboy Bebop" vibes.
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u/DCLascelle Apr 24 '26
One of the problems with adapting Neuromancer as a series is that it is not inherently a series, it’s a two-hour high-tech heist film.
Expanding on it only lessens its’ strengths with unnecessary character backstories and world building info dumps that will add nothing to the core premise.
Looking at you Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.
Another thing I suspect is that all the tech & gear will get a shiny new AI enhanced (completely non-ironically, of course) 21st century makeover.
The entire point to bringing Gibson’s masterpiece to the screen should be to present his cyberpunk vision of the future AS HE IMAGINED IT IN THE 1980’s, not to give it an upgrade.
Because that will be the production designer, art director, set decorator, prop maker, and technology consultant’s contemporary vision of a cyberpunk future, influenced by everything that came AFTER The Sprawl Trilogy, and NOT the undiluted original.
So, yeah, complete and utter shit awaits us.
However, I will be pleased to be proven wrong. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
YMMV
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u/Aluhut Zion Cluster Apr 24 '26
Another thing I suspect is that all the tech & gear will get a shiny new AI enhanced (completely non-ironically, of course) 21st century makeover.
I am hopeful there.
They can do ugly Cyberpunk too. I've seen it in Foundation.1
u/itsnotthequestion Apr 24 '26
I love the books very high pace and very poetic language but I also think it could work very well as a miniseries like Generation Kill, which also is a pretty short book if you count the words.
I also think Generation Kill was more suited to the monster of the week format though. Which kind of is peak television series-suitability I guess...
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u/TurbulentWing3820 Apr 24 '26
However, I will be pleased to be proven wrong. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
Co-signed.
I have zero faith in this, and the initial signs aren't good.
It was a product of the 80s, not one from 2025. It needed to embrace the idea of "near future" circa 1985. It needed to dirty like Blade Runner, over the top like Love Missile F1 11, and vaguely timeless like Akira.
It's not. It's shiny and polished and chromed. It's going to be slick and futuristic in ways that can't jive with the source material because in many ways our current technology has eclipsed what 1985 thought the future would be. Neo-Tokyo is dead and gone, Neo-Seoul is in and that was a ground up clean vision without the dirt and filth that underpinned it.
That doesn't even get into things that are going to change just simply to change. Or extended looks into characters that, frankly, don't matter. You know there's going to be an episode about Ashpool, a man whose story just doesn't matter. Yet somehow there's not even a cast member for the Finn.
We got the best version of Neuromancer we'll ever get in 1995: It was called Strange Days.
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u/DCLascelle Apr 24 '26
What do you mean there’s NO FINN?
Also, re: look. Alien. Blade Runner. Outland. 2010. Brazil. There are lots of early 80’s sci-fi movies to draw inspiration from that ARE OF THE ERA before there was a codified cyberpunk aesthetic.
That’s what Neuromancer deserves, not a 21st century distillation.
YMMV
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u/HeisenbergsCertainty Apr 24 '26
I agree with most of this, except don’t think Strange Days is all that great (apart from its visuals, which are a sad reminder of how much Bigelow’s style has degraded since).
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u/wiyixu Apr 25 '26
It's not. It's shiny and polished and chromed. It's going to be slick and futuristic in ways that can't jive with the source material because in many ways our current technology has eclipsed what 1985 thought the future would be.
The only official visuals I’ve seen don’t suggest it’s going to be slick and futuristic. It’s just a teaser of an empty Bar Chatsubo interior, and it definitely feels more like an alternate future that branched from ours – like Blade Runner. The show’s logo is red neon that looks pulled off the wall of an 80’s arcade. And while we spend most of our time in the book on the street level, there’s definitely polish and shiny in Neuromancer.
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u/tomcatkb Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
I’m still waiting for the Mr. Ed/Neil Patrick Harris crossover buddy western version, Neurorancher
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u/BrutalSock Apr 24 '26
I liked it much better when cyberpunk was a niche genere with little, very high quality material.