Well this is kind of weird. Buried in the middle of a news story about Jason Priestley’s next directorial effort Mud Puppy is the announcement that Splice director Vincenzo Natali has apparently taken over the reins on the upcoming adaptation of William Gibson’s classic cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. Seriously, what’s the bigger story here? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Joseph Kahn (Torque) is now off the project and has been replaced by Natali, although it remains to be seen if Hayden Christensen is still signed on for the lead role.

Either way, this is good news for a project that has basically been stuck in development hell for decades. It’s pretty awesome that Natali seems to be getting so many opportunities dropped in his lap thanks to Splice, and it only makes me even more eager to see it. His earlier films Cube and Cypher seem like good preparation for Neuromancer, and coincidentally, Natali previously worked as a storyboard artist on Johnny Mnemonic, the 1995 adaptation of a William Gibson short story. Natali also recently signed on to direct a movie based on the children’s book Tunnels, and was rumoured to be circling Swamp Thing and J.G. Ballard’s High Rise. Clearly the man is in high demand right now, and I can’t wait to see what he does with Neuromancer.