Getting Around the Block

With just a few TV shows under his belt, writer, director, producer, editor and actor Joe Cornish certainly made a name for himself with his 2011 directorial debut, the sci-fi indie flick Attack the Block. While originally released in the UK, the limited American release gained Cornish an almost instant following. The film got great reviews and received several awards from audiences and critics including Best Debut Director at the 2011 New York Film Critics Online and an Audience Award for Best Motion Picture at the 2011 Stiges Film Festival. Since the movie premiered last year, we’ve all been wondering what sort of project Mr. Cornish has got under his belt for the upcoming year. We now have our answer!

Taking on Neal Stephenson’s ‘Snow Crash’

According to Deadline, the adaptation for Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash has just been reacquired by Paramount Pictures. Joe Cornish is set to direct and help adapt the screenplay. Although the novel was written nearly 10 years ago when the original movie rights were up for grabs, it has only recently been settled by Paramount.

As an early ’90s book, Snow Crash’s intricate and science fiction/cyberpunk plot may have been a bit ahead of its time. But lucky for us, we now live in a day and age where visual graphics are outstanding. I can definitely see the need for a pretty boss CGI team in order to make this film a reality. The storyline involves a post-apocalyptic-esque setting where the U.S. is made of private territories run by mafias. Essentially, there’s a computer virus called “Snow Crash” that fries the brains of the computer user. The main character, Hiro Protagonist, is a computer hacker/samurai swordsman/pizza delivery driver who’s trying to stop the takeover of postmodern civilization.

The book gained a pretty large following and even appeared on Time Magazine’s list of 100 all-time best English-language novels written since 1923, so it’s obviously pretty bad-ass. The success of the novel is even attributed to popularizing the term “avatar” in pertaining to online virtual bodies.

While no official release date has been reported or even any notion as to when production will begin, we’ll certainly be on the lookout for updates Joe Cornish’s newest project, Snow Crash!

Interview with Joe Cornish: