Neuromancer The Movie
Novice director Joseph Khan has somehow earned the privilege of directing the screen adaptation of William Gibson’s quintessential Cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. I’ve mentioned before that Neuromancer is my favorite novel, so to gauge the potential calibre of a Neuromancer movie by this virtually unknown director, I looked up his credentials.
Khan directs music videos for Britney Spears.
I decided not to hold that against him, though. After all, David Fincher, who started out directing Madonna for the MTV crowd, has proven his big-screen directorial talent with such flicks as Alien 3, Fight Club and Zodiac. I felt it would be only fair to reference Khan’s filmography before lamenting his handling of Neuromancer.
Khan has one film credit to his name: Torque. Released in 2004, it’s been described as a motorcycle version of The Fast and the Furious. A quick visit to RottenTomatoes.com, where the majority of critics wrote off Torque as utter crap, confirmed my suspicions about that dubious comparison. The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, declared Torque to be “A strong candidate for the most thunderingly stupid movie of the year.”
Now, indie producer Peter Hoffman is handing to the maker of said “thunderingly stupid movie” my favorite novel.
I don’t want to sound mean. Khan may achieve directorial greatness one day, but that day has not yet come. My frustration, therefore, stems from the realization that a sci-fi masterpiece is being entrusted to a novice. As one reviewer writes, Khan, like many music video directors, has “no clue how to tell stories (longer than 4 minutes).” Gibson’s novel engages readers for 271 pages, and has done so for more than 20 years. Any would-be director of Neuromancer should possess commensurate expertise with the motion picture medium.
If David Fincher was busy, I’m sure fans of the novel would have waited. I know I could have.
Joe Nittoly
November 4, 2007