'Attack The Block' Director Joe Cornish Set To Adapt Neal Stephenson Novel 'Snow Crash'

After kicking total ass with his directorial debut Attack The Block, Joe Cornish found himself on seemingly every short list in Hollywood. Everyone wanted to work with the man who made Moses cool again and now he's finally ready to trust.

Cornish has just committed to write and direct Snow Crash, based on the best-selling breakthrough novel by Neal Stephenson, which will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall at Paramount. Snow Crash takes place in a futuristic world run by corrupt corporations, where a deadly computer virus/street drug is circling across the world. A samurai/hacker/pizza delivery man named Hiro Protagonist (seriously) is tasked to stop it. Think Hackers and The Matrix with a dose of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Read more after the jump.

Deadline broke the news of the project, which has been languishing for over a decade at two studios before gaining new life with Cornish attached. Here's a more detailed description from its Amazon page:

From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet–incarnate as the Metaverse–looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist–hacker, samurai swordsman, and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible.

Sold, sold and sold. Any one else just order this book from Amazon?

It sounds like a perfect match for Cornish, who obviously has a love for sci-fi, technology and geeky action stuff. He can also balance characters and effects on a tight budget, which will be essential for this potentially very expensive movie. Here's hoping he can churn out a screenplay and start shooting quickly so we can see Snow Crash as soon as possible.

Have you read the book? Is it adaptable? Is Cornish the man for the job?