OLIVIA MARNE
Mark Wahlberg and Liam Neeson are mulling over offers to headline director Vicenzo Natali’s long-gestating adaptation of “Neuromancer”, based on the classic literary offering by William Gibson.
Wahlberg, who has a solid working relationship with the film’s producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura (he cast the former in “Four Brothers” and “Shooter), would play the anti-hero Case. Neeson, who like Wahlberg will receive a pay-or-play deal, would be the twisted tool Armitage.
“Nobody has officially signed for the project, but the offers are on the table”, we were informed overnight.
The book that launched the cyberpunk generation tells 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.
GFM films, who recently signed on to buddy-up with director Kimble Rendall on Aussie actioner “Blowback”, are producing the picture, which has been in development for the better part of a decade. Chuck Russell (“The Mask”) and British music video director Chris Cunningham are just two of the filmmakers who have been involved in the film along it’s elongated journey to the screen.
“There’s no firm start date yet but it’s believed the film will get underway once director Nalati completes work on his latest flick “Haunter”, our source adds. “Expected release is 2014”.
As a fan of the book, I do like the idea of Neeson as Armitage, not sure about Wahlberg as Case. The boy can act though, so I’m sure he’ll nip my skepticism in the bud pretty quick.
