William Gibson’s Neuromancer is headed to the small screen, Variety reports.
Gibson’s cyberpunk novel, published in 1984 by Ace, is considered a foundational work of science fiction, and one that predicted the Internet age. It tells the story of Case, a data thief who is hired to take on a powerful artificial intelligence; he must complete the job in order to have his nervous system restored.
In a 2014 essay for Kirkus, Andrew Liptak wrote of the novel, “The book depicted a dystopian future and codified a simmering movement within the genre: Cyberpunk. It’s a claustrophobic, cynical and raw take on the future, and it became an instant hit, one that changed science fiction for years to come.”
The planned series, developed by Apple TV+, will span 10 episodes, with the pilot directed by JD Dillard (Devotion). The showrunner will be Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan).
Dillard and Roland told Variety, “Neuromancer has inspired so much of the science fiction that’s come after it and we’re looking forward to bringing television audiences into Gibson’s definitive ‘cyberpunk’ world.”
In a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, Gibson addressed the adaptation, writing, “I answer showrunner’s and director’s questions about the source material. I read drafts and make suggestions. And that’s it, really, though my previous experience has been that that winds up being quite a lot of work in itself. I don’t have veto power. The showrunner and director do, because the adaptation’s their creation, not mine. A novel is a solitary creation. An adaptation is a fundamentally collaborative creation, so first of all isn’t going to ‘be the book.’”
I’m not going to be answering many questions here, about Apple TV’s adaptation of Neuromancer. I’ll have to be answering too many elsewhere, and doing my part on the production. So I thought I’d try to describe that, my part.
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) February 29, 2024
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.