The Sci-Fi Channel has released a list of in-development programs, and a very interesting item appears therein:
“Diamond Age, based on Neal Stephenson’s best-selling novel The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, is a six-hour miniseries from Clooney and fellow executive producer Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions.
When a prominent member of society concludes that the futuristic civilization in which he lives is stifling creativity, he commissions an interactive book for his daughter that serves as a guide through a surreal alternate world. Stephenson will adapt his novel for the miniseries, the first time the Hugo and Nebula award winner has written for TV. “
Stephenson is one of those authors I always intend to get around to—I’ve got Cryptonomicon on the huge to-read pile, for example, and Snow Crash as well—but my only real contact with his work were his excellent articles in Wired back in the day. There’s a fair amount of mixed opinions about Stephenson, largely aimed (as I recall) at his difficulty in wrapping up his novels. In particular, I’m pretty sure that was a significant criticism of The Diamond Age, so if that’s right, one wonders if Stephenson will take the opportunity to improve the end in his adaption?