There's a rumour going around that Hayden Christensen is joining the film version of William Gibson's Neuromancer (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com) which we first heard about in May last year.

The word is that Christensen is set to play the character of the hacker Case, the lead of the film.

Last we heard was that Joseph Kahn, the director of Torque, would direct and despite being and independent film the plans were for a US$70 million budget.

The producer Peter Hoffman, who also produced Johnny Mnemonic, previously said that the story would:

"...the project is not just a good sci-fi adventure but a story full of hot topics --issues like artificial intelligence, bio-engineering and alternate theories of immortality will be dealt with dramatically. There'll be a sort of love interest as well."

Now I don't know how that compares with the original story because like JoBlo, where the rumour comes from, I have not read the original. So we need someone who has to tell us how that compares to the actual novel. I know it's not much to go on just now, but it's a starting point.

The next question is obviously will Hayden Christensen make a good Case, and will the Neuromancer film live up to Gibson's novel?