Copyright Giuseppe Salza, 1994. giusal@world-net.sct.fr
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: This document can be freely copied under the following conditions: it must circulate in its entire form (including this disclaimer); it is meant for personal and non-commercial usage. This entire document or parts of it are not to be sold or distributed for a fee without prior permission. Send permission requests to "giusal@world-net.sct.fr". This document is provided "as is", without express of implied warranty. In other words, use it at your own risk.
INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM GIBSON by Giuseppe Salza
****This interview will be included in the book "Net-Surfers" (tentative tile) by Giuseppe Salza, to be published by "Theoria Edizioni" in Italy in Spring 1995****
CANNES. William Gibson was in Cannes in May 1994 to promote the filming of "Johnny Mnemonic", a $26 million science fiction movie based on his short story, and starring megastar Keanu Reeves as the main character. Directed by 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 ?
