Neal Stephenson’s famous cyberpunk novel to be filmed . . .

Brit comedian Joe Cornish, who made his directorial debut with Attack the Block in which young south London gang members defend their home turf against alien critters, has signed on to write and direct Snow Crash, a 1992 cyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson, for Paramount.

The novel is set in a near future in which America is run by huge corporations and the mafia. A computer hacker and pizza delivery dude named Hiro Protagonist must try to stop a computer virus which can somehow kill computer users themselves. The novel – written in 1992 – is considered to be one of the seminal works of cyberpunk alongside the likes of William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

Paramount bought the rights for the book upon its publication and it has since gone to Disney and back to Paramount again in the meantime.