After first announcing the Neuromancer TV series back in February 2024, it seems things are proceeding at a steady clip, as the upcoming Apple TV+ sci-fi drama has found its lead.
Callum Turner ( Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Masters of the Air) will portray Case, a "a damaged, top-rung super-hacker" 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."
The 10-episode sci-fi drama is of course, based on the 1984 debut novel from American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It instantly catapulted Gibson into stardom as it went on to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award.
It seems the television series will be sticking fairly close to the source material, as Gibson's novel follows Henry Case, a washed-up hacker brought in for one last, big score- however, this last hurrah leads to Case coming into contact with an incredibly powerful artificial intelligence.
Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Dark Winds) and JD Dillard (Devotion, The Outsider) are leading development on the project, with Dillard set to direct the pilot while Roland serves as showrunner.
Given that Neuromancer is regarded as the foundational work of the cyberpunk science fiction subgenre, its impact is extensive. Core staples of the genre—such as grim futures, strong corporations, and human-machine integration—were all first introduced in Gibson's book.
Many ideas introduced in Neuromancer can be found in video games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Deus Ex, as well as motion pictures like The Matrix.
Over the years, there have been several attempts to make a film based on the novel, including efforts from director Joseph Kahn and actress Milla Jovovich in 2007, director Vincenzo Natali and Liam Neesom in 2012, and most recently in 2017 as Deadpool director Tim Millers signed on to direct a film adaptation for Fox.
These projects never really got off the ground but the Apple TV+ series appears to be moving along at a brisk pace.
Neuromancer (book) synopsis: 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.