How Viktor Tsoi influenced the author of ‘Johnny Mnemonic’
William Gibson, the “father of cyberpunk” and author of ‘Johnny Mnemonic’, ‘Neuromancer’, and ‘Hotel New Rose’ among others, recently admitted that his work was influenced by… Russian musician Viktor Tsoi!
They met through Rashid Nugmanov's 1988 movie ‘Igla’ (‘The Needle’), in which the frontman for the rock band ‘Kino’ played the lead role. After seeing the movie at a festival in San Francisco, he decided to meet the director.
Nugmanov shared his plan to make a sequel, set in a parallel reality of the 1990s: the Soviet Union had collapsed, the borders were closed and Leningrad was the only free territory left. This is precisely where Moreau, the main protagonist in ‘The Needle’, was heading to get to the airport and fly away.
In Spring 1990, work on the ‘Citadel’ project began: Nugmanov's concept was very appealing. Gibson told him he wrote the script. However, a month before production could commence, Viktor Tsoi tragically died. Many years have passed since, but the writer remains a fan of the musician. "Viktor Tsoi is the main musical inspiration in my work, someone most readers have never heard of and certainly haven't listened to," he recently wrote on his social media page.
If you visit his page, you can see not only ‘Kino’ videos, but also Tsoi's paintings and Gibson's thoughts on him.
