# Snow Crash: Movie to be Directed by guy who did Attack the Block! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264 "2012-06-15T17:55:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/1 "2012-06-15T17:55:07Z")
Story here: [Paramount will try adapting Snow Crash for today's cyberpunks](http://www.avclub.com/articles/paramount-will-try-adapting-snow-crash-for-todays,81392/) Can’t imagine how the story could be adapted, but I loved AtB. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/2 "2012-06-15T19:26:23Z")
That is going to be one hard book to adapt. 90% of the charm of Snow Crash was Stephenson’s snidely pedantic commentary. Without the exposition, it’s just going to be a bunch of very weird people doing strange stuff for no apparent reason. I’m not sure how the concept of a neuro-linguistic virus that works both in the real world and cyberspace is going to go over on the big screen. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/3 "2012-06-15T19:28:23Z")
All I know is that on this news I suspect that Equipoise has zero interest in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/4 "2012-06-15T19:36:11Z")
It could be a good movie. Like any movie based on a substantial book, it’s going to leave out a lot of minor details. It’s been a while since I read it, but I think every chapter could be reduced to a reasonable sequence of scenes. I would also expect a lot of time spent on ‘wow’ effects, and some fairly wooden acting from flavor of the month casting. But if you can turn Herman Woulk and Michener works into movies, this one can be done as well. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/5 "2012-06-15T19:36:28Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > That is going to be one hard book to adapt. 90% of the charm of Snow Crash was Stephenson’s snidely pedantic commentary. Without the exposition, it’s just going to be a bunch of very weird people doing strange stuff for no apparent reason. I’m not sure how the concept of a neuro-linguistic virus that works both in the real world and cyberspace is going to go over on the big screen. Yea, I can’t really picture it being a great movie either. Partially, as you say, because a lot of the more interesting ideas are unfilmable and partially because a lot of the ideas that are film-able have long since been used in other movies. ---
**Author:** ![srm13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f05b48/32.png) [@srm13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srm13)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/6 "2012-06-15T19:51:40Z")
Will read book. Then make judgement. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/7 "2012-06-15T20:15:26Z")
I don’t care, I’ll see it. Hoping it goes well and in 12 years they’ll see fit to make a mini-series of The Baroque Cycle. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/8 "2012-06-15T20:16:47Z")
There’s a lot of sex and violence. Those tend to play well in movies. A lot of the book’s appeal though was in its futurism, particularly its introduction of the concept of computer avatars\* and the blurring of “Second Life” type virtual worlds with real life. Now that people are already used to those ideas, they won’t seem so innovative. - IIRC, Snow himself showed some pre-_Snow Crash_ examples of “avatar” being used in the sense of a online representation of oneself, but I still credit him with popularizing it. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/9 "2012-06-15T20:21:44Z")
They should make a movie out of just the first chapter. I would totally go to see that. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/10 "2012-06-15T20:37:54Z")
IMO, it will probably suck. It has all of the usual problems of trying to adapt a huge book to film - mainly leaving out 95% of it, so what’s left doesn’t really make sense. Plus the problems already mentioned of trying to adapt that particular subject matter and style to screen. Hell, they screwed up _Johnny Mnemonic_, and that was a story that I’d been waiting for _years_ to see someone adapt. That story was absolutely dying to be brought to the screen. And they ruined it completely. I second **MsWhatsit** ’s suggestion, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/11 "2012-06-15T20:38:23Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > That is going to be one hard book to adapt. 90% of the charm of Snow Crash was Stephenson’s snidely pedantic commentary. Without the exposition, it’s just going to be a bunch of very weird people doing strange stuff for no apparent reason. I’m not sure how the concept of a neuro-linguistic virus that works both in the real world and cyberspace is going to go over on the big screen. Not only that, but the notion of a geographically fixed cyberspace itself is going to go over like a lead balloon to a post-Internet audience. I remember writing about it back when I first read the book - how the pre-internet notion that “to access Google from MySpace, non-hackers will have to take the bus or “walk” three blocks in this direction” is almost fantastical in how much it didn’tpredict the future of computing in any recognizable shape or form. But yeah, agreed, unless they plan on just stopping the movie at random points to let Stephenson do an 10 minutes long voice-over on how to eat Cap’n Crunch, it won’t work as an adaptation :). (no, wait, that particular one was in \*Cryptonomicon \*wasn’t it ?) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/12 "2012-06-15T20:39:21Z")
I’m stoked! Unless the reviews are terrible, I’ll definitely go see it, if only for the Rat Things. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/13 "2012-06-15T20:44:12Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > (no, wait, that particular one was in \*Cryptonomicon \*wasn’t it ?) Yes. 🙂 I agree with your point, though. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/14 "2012-06-15T21:00:00Z")
I’m thinking Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones as Raven, Chloe Moretz as Y.T., and Jin from Lost as Hiro. I’m also wondering if we’re going to see the vagina dentata. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/15 "2012-06-15T21:22:28Z")
I’ll go watch it. I do hope the producers do decide to put in a proper ending though. Oh and they _have_ to make good use of ‘Reason’ _(though even reading the book I thought that was a convoluted means of having that punchline!)_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/16 "2012-06-15T21:49:13Z")
The first thing I’ve always wondered about in making a movie is the timeline of it. It’s set in a post-Reagan world where not only Reagan, but clowns like Ed Meese are the dominant Federal inflated currency honorees (“Ed Meeses” and “Gippers”). So many problems with all that, including that a futuristic US would _print_ huge denominations. Cash is so 20th century. Hiro Protagonist and Raven are both children of WWII vets. And Hiro ain’t all that old. Key plot point concerning their fathers. They’d at least have to bump it up a generation. (The Mafia soldiers would have to be Afghan/Iraq vets.) But then the whole collapse of the USSR, loose nukes, subs and aircraft carriers part would seem less realistic. Based on recent books converted into movies I’ve seen, there is a large tendency to just trash a whole lot of it and put in entirely new, unrelated stuff. Sometimes they just want to use the title and a few character names. Expect a substantially different entity from the book. I don’t expect this to go well. Uncle Enzo will not be happy, and you don’t want to make Uncle Enzo mad. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2012, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-crash-movie-to-be-directed-by-guy-who-did-attack-the-block/625264/17 "2012-06-16T10:13:05Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > All I know is that on this news I suspect that Equipoise has zero interest in the movie. _laugh_ He’s writing and directing. Now I have to forget about this great news, since, assuming everything goes as planned, it won’t even be released for a couple of years. I don’t want to be highly anticipating something this far in advance, I’ll wear myself out.