EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max has put in development Snow Crash, a drama series based on Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel, from writer Michael Bacall (21 Jump Street), director Joe Cornish (The Kid Who Would Be King), and Paramount TV.

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Bacall will pen the adaptation and serve as co-showrunner with Angela Robinson (The L Word), with Cornish set to direct. Frank Marshall is producing.

Bantam Books

Stephenson’s Snow Crash, originally published in 1992 by Bantam Books, is dystopian in nature, and like many of his other novels, covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy. In a summary provided by Goodreads, it revolves around “Hiro Protagonist, who in reality delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse.”

Snow Crash was nominated for both the British Science Fiction Award in 1993, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1994.

Bacall and Cornish will executive produce with Robinson, Marshall and Robert Zotnowski. Stephenson also will executive produce. Paramount TV is the studio.

Bacall wrote the screenplay for 21 Jump Street as well as Scott Pilgrim vs the World. He’s currently adapting Mark Millar’s comic book Sharkey the Bounty Hunter as a feature film for Netflix.

Cornish made his feature directorial debut with Attack the Block, the saga of a group of British youths who stave off an alien invasion in their rough neighborhood, which he also wrote. He most recently wrote and directed 20th Century Fox/Working Title’s 2019 fantasy feature The Kid Who Would Be King.

Stephenson also is the author of The Big U, Zodiac, The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, Cryptonomicon and most recently Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, among others.