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DreamWorks Picks up Neil Gaimans' Interworld

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the they-all-have-goatees dept.

Lisandro writes to tell us Geeks of Doom is reporting that author Neil Gaiman recently announced DreamWorks has optioned the film rights for his upcoming novel, 'Interworld'. "Gaiman said that in 1996 he began working with Michael Reaves on the idea for a story 'about a boy who finds himself in the middle of a war between two equally powerful forces, who joins a super-team consisting of versions of himself from different alternate realities to try and maintain the cosmic balance.' Soon after, the idea was pitched to DreamWorks and other studios, but was turned down."

23 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Confused by wiggles · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am most likely not alone in not knowing the significance of this. It made the front page, but I've never heard of either the author or the novel -- and I'd like to think I'm fairly up on this type of thing. Could someone who knows please enlighten us as to what the big deal is here?

    1. Re:Confused by ajs · · Score: 3, Informative

      The novel has not yet been published.

      The author is:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman

      and he is on the Web at:

      http://www.neilgaiman.com/

    2. Re:Confused by C0rinthian · · Score: 5, Informative

      Neil Gaiman is probably best known for the critically acclaimed comic series "The Sandman" and has done a slew of other successful comic series and novels.

    3. Re:Confused by spun · · Score: 2, Informative

      Neil Gaiman is an immensely popular sci-fi/fantasy author. He also does some great graphic novels like The Sandman. I can't imagine being into sci-fi, fantasy, or comics and not having heard of him. He's not got quite the same level of publicity as, say, Heinlein or Tolkien, but he's got quite a lot of fans.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    4. Re:Confused by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you've not heard of the author, you might find an interview that he did for a little site called Slash-something useful.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    5. Re:Confused by Selfbain · · Score: 5, Informative

      He also writes books that win so many awards that he is starting to turn them down. He won the Hugo for best novel one year, the Hugo for best novella the next year and then turned down the award for best novel the year after that.

      --
      Well, it has never been successfully tested.
    6. Re:Confused by Scrameustache · · Score: 5, Funny

      I've never heard of either the author or the novel -- and I'd like to think I'm fairly up on this type of thing. You'd LIKE to think that, but you really, really shouldn't ;-)
      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    7. Re:Confused by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Although difficult to pull off well, I could see a film of American Gods being pretty fantastic (though it'd piss off the Religious Right no end). Someone needs to option that.

  2. Good news by Selfbain · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but I'm far more excited about the fact he has a new book coming out right away than I am over the fact they're making a movie based on it.

    --
    Well, it has never been successfully tested.
  3. When do I report for the casting call? by BendingSpoons · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm glad to hear that an author I've never heard of has secured film rights to a book that hasn't been released yet, but I think I liked this movie better when it was called 'The One' and starred Jet Li.

    --
    For all we know the moon may be as conscious as a poet or a realtor, and extremely weary of its monotonous round. - HLM
  4. Hold your horses... by Incompetnce · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't it only something like 10% of stuff that gets optioned actually ever gets produced? Or possibly even less.

    And given the difficulty Gaiman has had with Sandman and movie studios, I don't think this will ever see daylight.

  5. Movie futures by TheWoozle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder if we could start a commodities market where movie studios sell tickets/DVDs/downloads for future movie productions. Maybe then "news" like this might be worth something.

    Otherwise, wake me up when the movie has actually started *filming*.

    --
    Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
    1. Re:Movie futures by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I've been saying for a long time this is how TV should be made. Make a pilot, and put it out for the public to view. Set up an escrow fund where people who like the pilot (or, if it's an established writer / producer like their other work) can put up some cash. If it reaches the amount needed to make the series within a given timeframe then the funds are released and the series is made. The final product is then released for download to the people who paid for it, who can then distribute it as they want (you're paying for the item to be created, rather than for the copy, because that's the thing that has the real value).

      Copyright would still protect you from derived works, so if the series is successful then people are likely to be willing to pay for a sequel and the original author is the only one who can make it.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  6. Michael Moorcock Ripoff anyone? by MuChild · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I obviously haven't read the book yet, but it sounds an awful lot like Michael Moorcock's "Eternal Champion"/Elric of Melniboné material.

    Everything being done these days was done better in the '70's!

    1. Re:Michael Moorcock Ripoff anyone? by ao_coder · · Score: 2, Informative

      While I like both authors, they arent very similar (well ok, they are both English, and prone to fantasy). The Eternals series doesn't share anything in common with the eternal champion series aside from the word "eternal".

      Gaiman's been around long enough that I am not sure you can count his entire body of work as having been authored "these days".

      If you haven't read Gaiman, you should check out some of his stuff- you're in for a real treat. I wish I could discover him over again...

      --
      The best lack all convictions, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. -Yeats, The Second Coming
  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. And they call this superteam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Fantastic One

  9. Okay... So let me get this right by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The premise of the novel is that it's better to have a permanent, eternal and unwinnable war between two opposing forces than it is to join one side, defeat the other side and have a subsequent eternity of peace?

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    Deleted
    1. Re:Okay... So let me get this right by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Depends on the weapons the war is fought with. An economic 'war' fought between rival corporations, for example, is better than a monopoly in a lot of ways. The Cold War, with the associated accelerated rate of technological growth, was almost certainly better than a McCarthyite or Soviet super-state.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  10. Okay, how about a Beowulf cluster? by frankie · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, really! Although the bit about Interworld is somewhat interesting, this would have been a much better article if it explained the surrounding context: Neil Gaiman is hitting the silver screen in a BIG way right now. His graphic novel Stardust is coming this August, loaded with an astonishing number of name actors. And for the money shot, Gaiman's adaptation of Beowulf follows up in November, with another big batch of stars.

  11. Since Gaiman is on-topic by anethema · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anyone who enjoys Alice-in-Wonderland type stories, the book Neverwhere by Gaiman is probably one of my favorite books ever.

    Does an excellent job of telling a Wonderland type story where the protagonist is thrown into a totally different world, fairly close to this one. It is certainly my favorite work by Gaiman (much more so than American Gods, which seemed to be more 'critically acclaimed')

    Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Neverwhere-Novel-Neil-Gaiman /dp/0060557818/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-3732875-4118235 ?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182206627&sr=8-2

    --


    It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
  12. It's not just Hugos by reason · · Score: 5, Informative

    From his website, "Neil Gaiman is the winner of 3 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, 1 World Fantasy Award, 4 Bram Stoker Awards, 6 Locus Awards, 2 British SF Awards, 1 British Fantasy Award, 3 Geffens, 1 International Horror Guild Award and 1 Mythopoeic."

    Many of these are judged awards, not fan awards.

  13. Re:hopefully... by Ganesh999 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't agree with the implied criticism of "MirrorMask". I simply loved it, so did my wife.

    Sure it lacked mass appeal; it was very much an "art-house" feel, and the cast of only 7 or so people ensured that the film felt more like a screenplay (not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion - check out "Dogville").

    But the plot was inventive and quintessentially Gaiman, and the acting was top notch. Costumes and sets were simple but well thought out, and seeing Dave McKean's usual style of artwork transformed from the static page to cgi was absolutely jaw-dropping; it felt like 3D, somehow.

    Weirder, both the wife and I had really powerful, lucid dreams that night. How many blockbusters can you say *that* about?

    Original.

    Conrad