Aug
5
James McTeigue, the director of films such as V For Vendetta and Ninja Assassin, has said that he is still actively pursuing an adaptation of Altered Carbon, the Philip K Dick Award winning novel by Richard Morgan.
“I still hope to make [Altered Carbon] with Joel [Silver, producer],” said McTeigue to /Film’s Peter Sciretta. “There is a really good script that I’ve developed for a while, and I’d love to do that when the time is right, and hopefully that time will be shortly. We’ve started actively talking about that again.” Altered Carbon has been a project long in gestation, with the rights bought almost as soon as the novel was published in 2002. It has assumedly been in development hell up until this point, but the news that McTeigue is still considering the project is encouraging, even if there is no specific time frame.
Altered Carbon follows the story of Takeshi Kovacs, a former special forces operative who is released from prison to help solve the murder of a prominent figure on Earth. In the future, a person’s consciousness can be transmitted and downloaded into a different body, meaning that the murder of wealthy individuals is practically pointless, as they’ll simply restore themselves from consciousness backups into clone bodies. Kovacs works the case in a typical hard-boiled detective manner, and uncovers far-reaching consequences in the process.
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There isn’t much that I can say about this fantastic novel, “Altered Carbon”, that pretty much hasn’t already been said, but I’ll coin a try. It is brutally brilliant! SciFi Noir at it’s best, combining the cyberpunk brilliance of William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” & the crime noir of Raymond Chandler’s “Big Sleep”. It juxtaposes those lost styles while Morgan paints in the cinema of his own literary voice. There are few books I read more than twice and “Altered Carbon” is one of them. If director James McTeigue ever gets ’round to adapting Morgan’s Philip K. Dick award winning novel I pray he does it justice. I’m still clinching in agony at what was done to Gibson’s “Johnny Mnemonic”. With “V For Vendetta” in McTeigue resume I’m hopeful. I’d like to see a bit of what Frank Miller was going for with “Sin City” as that film adaptation was nearly perfect. “Altered Carbon” may not be a graphic novel, but it’s a novel that is plenty graphic. Vivid imagery. I’d use unfamiliar sections of Boston, Chicago, Manhattan, Prague, London and such to set the multiple scenes… some digital wizardry, so long as it’s not overdone. I want the film version to feel very real and weighted, like the new Batman films, to a point. A bit of “300″ & “Grendel”, as well. But in the end the novel will always be the best format. It is easily one of SciFi’s Best Top 100 novels of the past 100 years. It’s still breaking waves through “Broken Angels” & “Woken Furies” as well as his other variations from “Market Forces” to “Black Man” (“Thirteen” in the USA); his “Black Widow” Marvel graphic novels are stunning, breathing new life into the black veins of Natasha Romanoff (amongst her other aliases). And even now as he trades in the guns for swords in something I call Brutal Fantasy Morgan has created an exceptionally stand alone epic adventure with “The Steel Remains”. And yes, “Altered Carbon” still remains one of the best of it’s kind. With gleaming steel. Read it!
I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Morgan late 2009 on a book tour for “The Steel Remains”. Great chap!
[Black Dog] ~A Kovacs inspired short story w/ a touch of Neuromancer at the begin, w/ a touch of my own voice:
THE SKY ABOVE Kovacs was the colour of of dirty rain, a flickering neon sense of vendetta with the spliced downloads of illegal consciousness. It was pure hell, all too familiar. It was home. No badly designed dataJuiced Assassins with desperate moods waiting in the wet shadows, on the bent rooftops beneath that sky of dirty rain. And that rain cut hard right into the rat infested streets of the MultiCity. Takeshi was in a foul mood, he would find the Nail Bar and drink that foul mood down with brown & amber bourbon until he felt so foul he didn’t care anymore. He hopped on a phatphat and made his way in a bad way down the twisting, twisted streets and tight alleyways.
“Thanks.”
The Nail Bar. Another home. Home when he wished to ‘unsee’ his home outside. And as always Nail’s old neon sign flickered and blurred flood red and stained the wet brick-walls and broken windows around it, like tobacco spit and cheap blood. He had a new sleeve, “Again.” He breathed deep, moaned at the new tightness of the new flesh which he has yet to see. He paid his respects to Sand, the Nail’s owner and lone barkeep. Tossed back a shot of the heavy stuff, two fingers. The mirror behind the bar had long ago evolved into ugliness of the place. Nothing seeing there.
In the bad lighting of the Nail’s piss stalls he glimpsed his new face in the spider-webbed cracked mirror. Asian and something else. He wanted a cigarette but this New Sleeve did not have the desire. “Shit,” he groaned. “I’ll have to make myself sick all over again just to suck in bad poison, tar and smoke. And smoke ’till I go vertigo, puke and smoke some more.” Smoking still causes cancer, but when he’s altered into a New Sleeve every other year or so, who the fuck cares? At least this Sleeve is not a damned junkie. Or a pregnant virgin Mary hellbent on the Antichrist. Or some other run of the mill junk. The military’s usually good with putting him into a New Sleeve but they often fuck that up. Well, it’s a decent enough face and this guy did his time in the gyms. Not hard time with the heavy metals. He ran, swam, played basketball, hit the revolution machines, jumped rope, meditated, practiced-
-a noise. Loud!
Before Kovacs had a chance to light up he noticed the three punks standing in the dirty mirror behind him. Motorpsycho punks, gangland bikers. “Hey pretty boy! Got something for you to smoke!” The middle one with no neck, a scar ‘cross half his face and wearing all black leather – well, they all did. He made the advanced remark. Fuck, Kovacs realized now that this New Sleeve was a bit too clean and far too good looking. The ex-owner wasn’t queer, however the guy’s behind him think Metro is pretty much the same.
Three hours awake in my New Sleeve and I’m gonna already have to break three necks, Kovacs was thinking when the middle Dog slid his hand up inside Kovacs’ leg; before the Dog could twist hold of his cock Takeshi grabbed the guy’s wrist and with a quick twist broke it in several places. Reaching back with his left hand he grabbed the Dog Punk’s hair and smashed his teeth into the hard sink, broken both. Faster than he could think he had the other two Punk Dogs by the throats in each hand and slammed them both headfirst into an open toilet bowl that was full of about three days’ worth of shit and vomit. He’d broken their necks on impact. The first Dog was moaning behind him, trying to get up and clear his head. It was clear enough to Kovacs the punk dog had no idea where he was and that he was in a lot of pain.
“So you like pretty boys, eh, dog? Punk? You like ‘em so much you just got yer teeth all busted up while attempting to eat Sand’s sink. He ain’t gonna like that much, you hearing me? Bitch?” Nothing, the big dog just crawled around in his delirium. “Yer two bastards are dead, drowning in a toilet of shit and piss and vomit. I guess yer the lucky one, ’cause I ain’t in no kind of mood to do anymore shuffling. Hear?”
The dog slowly, painfully nodded his head. “Well, good enough, then. I’ll send Sand in to clean yer filthy ass up. Ciao.” Chow? What did I say that for? Must be Asian for ‘later’ or something. Chow? Ridiculous. I have to find the dossier and this Carbon Sleeve’s personality. As Kovacs’ was turning towards the exit he heard the slow, meticulous sound of a gun being pulled from inside a heavy black leather jacket.
Big mistake, dog.
Faster than three seconds Kovacs in his New Sleeve ripped the guy’s neck ’till it cracked and hung over it’s back shoulder.
Bad dog. Dead dog.
Back to the bar and another glass of brown whiskey. I’ll tell Sands when someone complains about the mess.
`enD. ~jon Lyndon
It seems I added a bit of Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name to the “Black Dog” Kovacs story I just posted beneath my comment. I actually wrote that story as an addition to the comment… it just sort of happened. I had no intention, but I’m glad I wrote it even though now that I’ve re-read it some two-three hours later I see all the typos and places where I should’ve added or deleted for structure. I’ve polished it up separate on my computer if anyone is interested? I know this is suppose to be comments about the above article “McTeigue updates on Altered Carbon”, but the short-story is related to and derived from Morgan’s brilliant “Altered Carbon” (obviously).
Okay, I hope my original comment was helpful and I also hope someone might like “Black Dog” un mastered.
Ciao!