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Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

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Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#11

Post by bitwize »

JPKab wrote: post #5

I would feel a lot better about it if it was being done by Christopher Nolan. Inception was proof that he doesn't let suits dumb down complex plots. But you have to admit that the opening sequence will at least be awesome: a pizza delivery guy who works for the Mafia flying through an extremely dangerous libertarian dystopia.

Inception was a shaky plot wrapped in enough accidental complexity to make studio execs -- and audiences -- think they were watching something profound. I get a sense of Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker who desperately wants to be taken seriously, which is just the opposite of who we need for Snow Crash. Given his admittedly short body of work (Attack the Block, The Adventures of Tintin), Joe Cornish seems a great choice for handling the action and outragous weird stuff in Snow Crash.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#13

Post by engtech »

bitwize wrote: post #11
JPKab wrote: post #5

I would feel a lot better about it if it was being done by Christopher Nolan. Inception was proof that he doesn't let suits dumb down complex plots. But you have to admit that the opening sequence will at least be awesome: a pizza delivery guy who works for the Mafia flying through an extremely dangerous libertarian dystopia.

Inception was a shaky plot wrapped in enough accidental complexity to make studio execs -- and audiences -- think they were watching something profound. I get a sense of Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker who desperately wants to be taken seriously, which is just the opposite of who we need for Snow Crash . Given his admittedly short body of work ( Attack the Block , The Adventures of Tintin ), Joe Cornish seems a grea…

I think Inception, Memento and The Dark Night show that Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who is taken seriously.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0634240/awards

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#15

Post by rabidsnail »

knieveltech wrote: post #14

Rev. Wayne's Pearly Gates is going to require some serious refactoring if the studio (and director) want to avoid legions of pissed off fundies protesting at local theaters.

Why would they want to avoid legions of pissed off fundies protesting? You couldn't buy advertising that good for any amount of money.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#16

Post by Turing_Machine »

pault wrote: post #3

I'm afraid they'll leave out the most interesting parts of the book and make it a dumb action movie. For me, what makes the book great isn't the plot, it's the satire of american suburbia, globalization, and the weird tangents into sumerian mythology and NLP. I hate when they make movies out of my favorite books...

Snow Crash was originally intended to be a graphic novel (see Stephenson's afterword). If that material still exists, it could work.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#17

Post by mcphilip »

knieveltech wrote: post #14

Rev. Wayne's Pearly Gates is going to require some serious refactoring if the studio (and director) want to avoid legions of pissed off fundies protesting at local theaters.

I doubt a movie skewering pentecostalism would lead to legions of fundies protesting. Growing up southern baptist, as fundie as it gets, we too would make fun of pentecostals.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#18

Post by Cushman »

planetguy wrote: post #10
pault wrote: post #3

I'm afraid they'll leave out the most interesting parts of the book and make it a dumb action movie. For me, what makes the book great isn't the plot, it's the satire of american suburbia, globalization, and the weird tangents into sumerian mythology and NLP. I hate when they make movies out of my favorite books...

Snow Crash is an interesting book, but a deeply flawed one. Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). It is a bit of a dumb action movie, in many ways. A guy with a sword takes on an entire flotilla, if I recall correctly. The coolest moment in the entire book involves somebody saying "I'm sure they'll listen to reason" and then pulling out an enormous gu…

> The coolest moment in the entire book involves somebody saying "I'm sure they'll listen to reason" and then pulling out an enormous gun labelled "REASON"

It's actually quite a small gun, labeled "Ultima Ratio Regum", and the original owner (who delivers that line) dies when its software crashes. And if you think that was the coolest moment, I'm not sure what book you were reading... Did you miss the downhill skateboarding in an office building? The nuclear-powered cyborg security drone? Hiro deflects a spear with a katana. There's a man with his own nuclear deterrence strategy.

Snow Crash is definitely action, and definitely dated (it's more alternate present than near future at this point), but if it's dumb I would sure like to see smart.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#19

Post by adriand »

planetguy wrote: post #10
pault wrote: post #3

I'm afraid they'll leave out the most interesting parts of the book and make it a dumb action movie. For me, what makes the book great isn't the plot, it's the satire of american suburbia, globalization, and the weird tangents into sumerian mythology and NLP. I hate when they make movies out of my favorite books...

Snow Crash is an interesting book, but a deeply flawed one. Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway). It is a bit of a dumb action movie, in many ways. A guy with a sword takes on an entire flotilla, if I recall correctly. The coolest moment in the entire book involves somebody saying "I'm sure they'll listen to reason" and then pulling out an enormous gu…

> Stephenson's later books are much better (though after Diamond Age they become too long to film anyway).

I disagree - his most recent novel, REAMDE, is twice as long as it needs to be (and badly in need of a ruthless editor), takes itself far too seriously, is full of absurdly unlikely plot scenarios, and is in general almost totally unreadable.

Re: Snow Crash movie to be written and directed by Joe Cornish

#20

Post by knieveltech »

rabidsnail wrote: post #15
knieveltech wrote: post #14

Rev. Wayne's Pearly Gates is going to require some serious refactoring if the studio (and director) want to avoid legions of pissed off fundies protesting at local theaters.

Why would they want to avoid legions of pissed off fundies protesting? You couldn't buy advertising that good for any amount of money.

There's good and bad publicity, and while the line might be blurred for software startups, it's fairly clear for film studios. Pissing off the conservative crowd in North America comes with some consequences for an entertainment/media company.

Case in point: The Golden Compass. The studio was shooting for a $30 million dollar opening weekend. They grossed something like $8.8 mil. You might recall that leading up to the opening there was a lot discussion (and a few calls for protests) surrounding some of the material in the books.

Compare/contrast "The Chronicles of Narnia". Both movies had similar budgets and targeted the same audience. Chronicles wasn't burdened by a bunch of controversy and pulled in ~$20 mil on the opening weekend.

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