AppleTV’s Neuromancer doesn’t just have to live up to the 1984 William Gibson novel, but also what’s inspired it. In the 42 years Hollywood’s tried bringing this book to life, sci-fi stories like Blade Runner and the more recent Cyberpunk 2077 have eclipsed or cribbed from it to one degree or another.
Showrunners JD Dillard and Graham Roland’s approach to this dilemma? Just focus on the show and don’t try aping current cyberpunk hotness. The former admitted to Wired they can’t “out-Cyberpunk Cyberpunk,” so they focused on “bringing people to the experience of what it felt like reading this for the first time in 1984. Anything beyond that, your reference points are already going to be derivative. If you put up Blade Runner reference art, you’re already behind it.”
“We didn’t want Neuromancer’s world to feel like X amount of years after the world that we were living in,” added Roland. “[We’re announcing] right out of the gate: Don’t be looking for the iteration of whatever phone you have in your pocket 50 years from now. We want this to be its own world.”
Having Gibson on hand as executive producer has helped the showrunners when they need it. The author’s apparently not interested in the show as a one-to-one recreation, but an expansion in some respects. Dillard recalled listening to Gibson discuss the book in its entirety: what he’s surprised has landed with readers, what he had trouble cracking back then, and what he wanted to do, but couldn’t. These talks were “the first time we looked at the book as a living text,” and guided their handling of the book.
As such, the show will take some creative liberties to fulfill its creators dreams. Think the beefed up Tessier-Ashpool arc or the origins of the Wintermule AI as two notable examples. Roland said they’re much more focused on pleasing Gibson than the viewers—the author’s “countercultural vibe” might’ve been why the two booked the gig over more established names, and they want to do right by him in that sense.
When Neuromancer premieres January 22 on AppleTV+, fans of the book can decide whether the show pulls that off. Until then, Wired’s story digs into the show’s visuals and music, its impact on real-world tech giants, and casting Callum Turner as Case before he potentially becomes James Bond.
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