Tim Miller, the director of last year’s surprise smash hit Deadpool, has signed on to develop Neuromancer for the silver screen.

If you’ve never read William Gibson’s seminal cyberpunk novel, we suggest you pick up a copy, because by now it’s pretty much required reading. Its influences can be seen in tons of TV shows, anime, movies and videogames; The Matrix, Ghost In The Shell, Cyber City OEDO 808, Deus Ex, Dark Angel, Syndicate, Beneath A Steel Sky – the list is practically endless.

Published back in 1984, Neuromancer told the story of a hacker called Henry Dorsett Case whose nerve-system was burnt out with a microtoxin that rendered him unable to enter the matrix – the internet – in which users interact with cyberspace using VR. When some shady backers offer Case the chance to once again be able to interface with the net, he leaps at the chance and finds himself on a course to hack an AI in earth’s orbit.

It won immediate critical acclaim on its release and it also earned Gibson both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

In the years since its release it’s been adapted as a radio play, a graphic novel, a videogame and even an opera. Somehow though, it’s never been made into a movie, though this hasn’t been for the lack of trying. At different times the likes of Joseph Khan (Torque), Vincenzo Natali (Splice) and Chris Cunningham (the man behind Aphex Twin’s most disturbing videos) have all been attached to direct.

Now Deadpool’s Tim Miller has been passed the baton, and we’re pretty hopeful that a Neuromancer movie may finally see the light of day – not least because it’s being produced by Simon Kinberg, the man who quarterbacked the recent X-Men movie franchise reboot.

As an aside, readers may be wondering why the header image in this story is a dog-eared paperback copy of the book. Well, that’s my copy – bought back in 1990 and read to death every other year. The book is really that good.

Oh, and there’s this.

Eat your hearts out fanboys!

[Source: The Verge]