Comments on: Neal Stephenson: Where Are The Movies?

By: drink

drink — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:01:30 +0000

I loved the description of the consumption of captain crunch. It’s funny because it’s true, as any true cap’n lov’r knows. So long as nobody tries to insert it into the movie as a monologue (with or without an accompanying montage) all will be well. It remains that Snow Crash most needs to be made into a movie, although I have a warm place in my heart for Zodiac as well. (It would be a hell of a lot cheaper to do properly…)

By: Paul in TX

Paul in TX — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:11:24 +0000

Thanks for the Anathem trailer - first time I’ve seen that.

Just finished Anathem and I’m about ready to re-read it while the story is fresh in my mind. I would like to fill in a lot of the questions that I have that I feel sure were answered earlier in the story but my mind didn’t process the first time through. This is why it’s such an amazing novel - it keeps you thinking about it long after you finish reading it.

If Dune and Lord of the Rings can be adapted to screen, I don’t see why Anathem couldn’t be. The only question is, would it be butchered by Hollywood (like Dune), or could a studio stand behind a producer and director who care about the story and would be faithful to the author’s vision (like LOTR)?

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:51:26 +0000

I like your idea of making Cryptonomicon into an HBO series. HBO can enjoy the luxury of producing programming that does not appeal to the mainstream (at least not at first). A lot of the math lessons in the book were intended to be skipable, and the show runner could chose to include them or not on their own discretion.

However, I completely disagree with your call for a more stringent editor. The sample you gave of the breakfast cereal, and many of his other lengthy diversions, are some of the most memorable parts of his book. His audience is comprised of geeks, and geeks like to geek-out about just such minutia.

And don’t you dare touch that dry humor.

By: Jandy

Jandy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:42:50 +0000

I’m not sure how well Cryptonomicon would translate to the screen (besides being too long, a lot of it is pretty, uh, techie), but Snow Crash and Diamond Age should be naturals. It’s amazing they haven’t already been made, though I can see the budgetary concerns. Thanks for the status reports, slim as they are.

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:48:54 +0000

I have been hoping for a Snowcrash adaptation for years, and was hoping that the Diamond Age project would serve as a jump start to get Snowcrash going again. As time passes that is looking less and less likely.

For what it’s worth, I asked Stephenson about the status of Diamond Age when he was on his book tour for Anathem. He couldn’t give any concrete dates for production schedules, saying that too many aspects of it were out of his control. He also sited the writers strike as throwing a wrench in the works. The good news though, he did say that they are still working on it, which is something.

I wrote about it at TV Squad, and in a weird bit of internet synergy, I linked back to an earlier Kevin post on the announcement.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/09/15/what-ever-happened-to-that-diamond-age-adaptation/

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:10:33 +0000

You sum it up well and I agree with what you’ve written. The lack of info on Diamond Age is disheartening. The longer it goes, the less likely it is that something will ever come of it. Of all his works IMHO, it seems like Diamond Age would be the best story for adaptation to the screen, big or small. I’d be happy with either!