The reason we call the internet Cyberspace is because of William Gibson‘s “Neuromancer.” The seminal cyberpunk novel quietly crept into the subconscience of our culture – somehow capturing both the 1980s zeitgeist and the feeling of the future to come. Now, after several directorial attempts, Vincenzo Natali (Splice, Cube) is the latest to take a stab at it, and a new website featuring a bit of concept art offers hope that the film will actually come to light this time around.

GFM Films’ website also claims that offers have gone out to Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg to play the lead roles, Armitage and Case. Whether they take the roles, and whether the film moves forward after that, is something we’ll have to wait to see. Either way, it’s exciting momentum.

Here’s the plot synopsis from the production:

“Case is a low level hustler living out his last days on the streets of the future Tokyo underground. A talented thief who would break into high security computer systems by directly linking his brain into them, he is discovered and injected with a poison which renders him unable to interface into cyberspace. Unable to work, Case embarks on a self-destructive path of drug addiction and double dealings, waiting for a local crime lord to collect on money and time that doesn`t exist.

Enter a shady businessman named Armitage who offers him the impossible: the chance to repair his neural damage and regain the life he once had. There is a catch though. Armitage has implanted timer activated poisons in Case’s body that he can react if Case doesn’t carry out what he asks. Placed under the protection of Molly, a professional killer who frees him by executing the crime lord, Case is put on a mystery assignment that begins a journey out of the gutters of future Tokyo and into an ever-expanding world of multinational intrigue.”

Source: io9, Bleeding Cool