Moviehole is telling us that Neuromancer may have found its two leads stars in Mark Wahlberg and Liam Neeson. Director Vincenzo Natali’s long-gestating adaptation has been in production for a while and now it looks like the wheels may finally start turning.
Wahlberg is up for the role of Case, the anti-hero and cyberspace hacker and Neeson would be playing the shadowy ex-military officer Armitage. Neither actor has officially signed on just yet but offers are on the table and talks are underway.
For those unfamiliar with the classic novel that the film will be based on, it tells the story of Case, “the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway–jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling encoded secrets for anyone with the money to buy his skills” and how he ends up double-crossing the wrong people, and has his talent burnt out of his brain, “micron by micron”. Case is “Banished from cyberspace, trapped in the meat of his physical body” until he is offered a second chance.”
The film is eyeing a release date in 2014 and filming will likely get underway once Natali finishes up Haunter.
Being both a fan of the source material and Natali’s last film Splice as well as his brilliant 1997 film Cube, I’ve been looking forward to Neuromancer for a long time now. The seminal cyberpunk novel is truly a classic and its inspiration can be found everywhere these days. To see the story come to the big screen, with Natali at the helm, is something that greatly excites me.
As for the casting choices, I think both Neeson and Wahlberg would fit well into author William Gibson’s universe. It sounds like the two stars are all but confirmed at this point so let’s hope that everything works out.
Tell us, what do you think of Neuromancer, is it coming together well? Do you want to see Wahlberg and Neeson star?