Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and Variety reports that Clémence Poésy of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and Tenet has signed on to play a character named Marie-France Tessier.
We’ve previously heard that BAFTA Award-nominee Callum Turner of Masters of the Air and The Boys in the Boat will be playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case, while Briana Middleton of Sharper and The Tender Bar takes on the role of Case’s partner Molly, “a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes.” Mark Strong of Dune: Prophecy and The Penguin has been cast as Molly’s employer Armitage. Joseph Lee of Beef and Star Trek: Picard is also on board, playing Hideo, who was a ninja bodyguard in the novel.
Created for television by Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and JD Dillard (The Outsider), Neuromancer will follow a damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly, a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes, aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets.
Gibson’s novel has the following description: Case was the sharpest data thief in the matrix—until he crossed the wrong people, and they crippled his nervous system, banishing him from cyberspace. Now a mysterious new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run at an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, a mirror-eyed street samurai, to watch his back, Case is ready for the adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction. Neuromancer was the first fully realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.
Gibson, Roland, and Dillard are executive producing the series with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Matt Thunell of Skydance Television, Anonymous Content; Drake, Adel’ Future’ Nur, and Jason Shrier of DreamCrew Entertainment; and Zack Hayden.
Are you a fan of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and are you looking forward to the Apple TV+ series adaptation? What do you think of Clémence Poésy taking on the role of Marie-France Tessier? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
