Glenn Reynolds notes that Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age will be adapted to a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries. It could be incredibly cool, although I thought Snow Crash would be better fodder for a miniseries. Stephenson’s work is well worth checking out — while I never got around to finishing the Baroque Cycle, I loved Cryptonomicon as well as his non-fiction In The Beginning Was the Command Line which was inspired by this great essay of the same name.
Sci-Fi is an interesting network — they have the incredibly well-done Battlestar Galactica, but also air the hokey ECW pro wrestling show. Their weekly creature features are usually good for schlocky entertainment. At the same time, they seem to keep a tight lid on budgets — they killed Farscape well before its time, and Stargate SG-1 recently got the axe (although it’s gone on for 10 seasons — more than an other genre show in US television).
Hopefully they’ll do a good job of adapting The Diamond Age for television — although I’m wondering if the parts with the Drummers won’t be more suited for pay cable… (and if you remember the book, you’ll know why.)
Dude… I mean, DUUUDE… I mean, WHOA…
But yeah, I agree with you that Snow Crash is more readily cinematic (though it would be an impressive screenwriting challenge to make all of the Sumerian stuff both coherent and interesting to an audience watching a two and a half hour movie- or even six hour miniseries).
But yes, this is certainly a day-brightner. I’ll be eagerly awaiting this one.