William Gibson Interviewed | Page 3

the concept artist (and Gibson's pal) Robert
Longo - with a few music video and TV credits, but for the first time in
charge of a feature, the film also stars Ice-T, Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi
Kitano (of the cult "Sonatine"), Udo Kier, Henry Rollins and Dina
Meyer. William Gibson also wrote the screenplay of his original story,
which was published in the anthology "Burning Chrome". "Johnny
Mnemonic" goes into wide release in current 1995.
In this interview, William Gibson talks at length about "Johnny
Mnemonic", movies, SF, net culture and issues.
What are your initial impressions on how "Johnny Mnemonic" is
turning out ?
I have just seen the pre-assembled 10-minute show reel. I think it is
fantastic! It felt very good seeing the universe of "Johnny Mnemonic"
taking a life on its own. If it had been different, I wouldn't probably be
here. But it can be safe to say that "Johnny Mnemonic" has been the
optimal screen experience so far.
Robert (Longo, the film director) and I kind of had a mutual experience
with it. We first tried to make a screen adaptation of "Johnny
Mnemonic" back in 1989, so we started pitching it around film
companies, asking for money. Didn't work out. We realized afterwards
that our major mistake was asking too little money. Our aim back then
was to make a little art movie, we figured that we would need less than
2 million dollars. Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville" was our main
inspiration back then. We should have asked more money.
We went through several script drafts and stages. It became very
painful pursuing the project. If it were just for me, I would have given
up long ago. It was really Robert's faith and persistence in getting this
film done that made it possible.
Have you written any film scripts before, besides this and the ill- fated
drafts for "Alien3"?
Yeah, I have done a couple of screen adaptations that never got made.
One was "Burning Chrome" (ED.Kathryn Bigelow was involved in it
for a while) and the other was "Neuro-Hotel".
What happened ?
I don't really feel like talking about them. Let's just say that these

projects have been... developed to death. It was getting more and more
frustrating, and I didn't like that.
Have you ever been involved in any other movie or TV project before
that ?
I was gonna write a story for the "Max Headroom" series, but the
network pulled the plug. My friend John Shirley did a couple of scripts
for them. He's the one who convinced me I should have written one,
too.
The only thing which was left of your script for "Alien3" was the
prisoners with the bar code tattooed on the back of their necks. What do
you think in retrospect of this misadventure ?
My script for "Alien3" was kind of Tarkovskian. Vincent Ward (ED.the
director of "The Navigator") came late to the project (ED.after a
number of other directors had been unsuccessfully approached), but I
think he got the true meaning of my story. It would have been fun if he
stayed on. (ED.he eventually quit. "Alien3" was finally directed by
David Fincher)
You seem very detached from your previous experiences in movies.
"Johnny Mnemonic", on the other hand, seems very personal to you.
Why is that ?
I wrote the original story in 1980. I think it was perhaps the second
piece of fiction I ever wrote in my life. It held up very good after all
these years. "Johnny" was a start for many creative processes: it was in
fact the root source of "Neuromancer" and "Count Zero". It is only fair
that the first script of mine that goes into production should come from
that, from my early career.
The world of "Johnny Mnemonic" takes for granted the Berlusconi
completion process, I mean the media baron becoming one of the
Country's leaders. I think the distinction between politicians and media
is gonna disappear. It already has, in effect. It is very sad.
It's like saying that the theories you imagined in your science fiction
stories are becoming real...
Yeah, but people shouldn't look at science fiction like they look at
"real" fiction. They shouldn't expect that this is what the future is gonna
look like. We (ED. science fiction writers) are sort of charlatans: we
come up with a few ideas and we make a living out of that.
When I wrote "Neuromancer", I would have never imagined AIDS and

the collapse of the USSR. We never get the future right. I always
thought that USSR was this big winter bear that would always exist.
And look at what happened. In 1993 I wrote an afterword for the
Hungarian version of "Neuromancer". I wrote that nothing lives forever,
and that it's time that