Become a very technical boy with Emma and CJ as they break down how on Earth a $1.5 million pitch for a film of William Gibson’s short story Johnny Mnemonic became a $30 million Hollywood flick starring Keanu Reeves. They get into Gibson and director Robert Longo’s friendship, the fact a director’s cut does not really exist, and how sometimes editing is everything.

Content warnings for Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson include: violence, cyberpunk gore, vaguely questionable portrayals of trans characters, and a junkie dolphin.

Content warnings for Johnny Mnemonic (1995) include: violence, cyberpunk gore, slightly more questionable portrayals of trans characters, memory loss, mourning the death of a child, an epidemic taking place in the early 2020’s (but not that one), and whatever the hell is going on with the Preacher.

The articles and resources Emma and CJ reference on this episode can be found here:

https://www.wired.com/1995/06/gibson-4/

https://www.wordyard.com/dmz/digicult/gibson-8-4-94.html

https://www.screenslate.com/articles/johnny-mnemonic-black-and-white-robert-longo-interview

https://web.archive.org/web/20070627074200/http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-3/issue7/gibson.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-24-fi-5524-story.html

https://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/5140

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/apr/30/johnny-mnmemonic-keanu-reeves-william-gibson

Smith PA, ed. Conversations with William Gibson / Edited by Patrick A. Smith. University Press of Mississippi; 2014.

You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and CJ on most socials @nearfutures. CJ is a part of Sly Robot Games and you can find more of his work at https://cjlinton.com/ including his game Bring Down the House, which Emma loves dearly. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and was to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork.

The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Journey forward to the year 2035 and take a trip to Chicago with Emma and Dominique to figure out just what all the robots are up to these days. These two read the quintessential robot sci-text I, Robot by Isaac Asimov and do a bit of their own puzzle solving to figure out just how this series of short conundrums with the three laws of robotics became a Will Smith cop action movie in 2004. Get real deep into the concept of robots as a metaphor, grounded near-future tech, and egregious product placement in this month’s Unnatural Selection. Content warnings for I, Robot by Isaac Asimov include: space religion, robotic puzzles, cave-ins, being trapped on an asteroids, being separated from your robot caregiver, and dying (but only for a little bit). Content warnings for I, Robot (2004) include: standard action-movie violence, drowning of a child, car accidents, robot racism, uncanny valley special effects, and an absolutely absurd price for two beers. The articles Emma references in this article can be found here: https://www.screenwritersutopia.com/article/d19127d8 https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/i-robot-movie-writer-interview-jeff-vintar-talks-isaac-asimov-ties https://variety.com/2025/film/news/alan-tudyk-i-robot-test-screenings-will-smith-1236486844/ You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and Dominique on most socials @DomSDickey. You can find places to read their writing at https://dominiquedickey.com/ or through Neon Hemlock press for their novella Redundancies and Potentials. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and was to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork. The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Time to turn on the radio and cruise down the highway with Marn and Emma as they get into Stephen King’s Christine and its 1983 John Carpenter adaptation. They get into how much interiority can really be kept when making a killer car movie for a paycheck, where that old man’s ghost went, and what is so compelling about Pittsburgh’s suburbs. Content warnings for _Christine _include: sexism, 50’s views of the world, graphic car violence, suicide, asphyxiation, death of a child, death of a parent, death of a loved one, growing apart from your childhood best friend, Stephen King standard grossness and weirdness, and a truly unfortunate slang term for a car part that is now considered a slur against trans people.

The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2016/10/killer-car-movie-bill-phillips-making-christine http://blog.thehorrorshow.tv/exclusive-interview-with-christine-firestarter-screenwriter-bill-phillips/ https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/lw2230.htm https://lofficier.com/christine.htm https://www.gamesradar.com/john-carpenter-keith-gordon-christine-exclusive-interview/ https://www.petersen.org/vehicle-spotlights/1958-plymouth-fury-christine You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and the show on twitter @UnselectPod. Marn can be found on most social media @corpserevivers. The web serial she writes with her wife can be found at https://prairiesongserial.com/ and her show Batman: Bump in the Night is part of the Moonshot Patreon feed. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard from either Emma, Marn, or the myriad shows they make together, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com/