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Neil Gaiman Confirms Movie Talks For Sandman, American Gods
An anonymous reader writes "Neil Gaiman has confirmed that things are finally coming together for a Sandman movie adaptation. Fresh on the release of a new issue of Sandman, the popular graphic novel that he first started back in 1988, Gaiman told CNN that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has agreed to produce the Sandman movie, and that both his knowledge and commitment 'impressed the hell out of me.' Gaiman also confirmed new progress on adapting American Gods into a TV series. 'People are being talked to, exciting things are going on,' Gaiman tells CNN, teasing that its current status is still 'wait and see.'"
I dream about the destiny of this movie, whether it will be the delerium I desire, or the death and destruction I despair it will be.
Somehow the light and Mystic tone of "Anansi boys" fit the subject much better for me than the somewhat darker "American Gods" As for Sandman, I haven't read any of it, but it is on my to-read list.
What happened to the Hyperion movie, by the way?
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American Gods was an interesting take on mythology, similar to Wolf Among Us, but with gods bumming around in human lives instead of Grimm tales animals.
It seems like that one would be the better one for a movie - the amusement of seeing gods depicted with human lives would could keep fresh with new and stranger gods, perhaps with some strong personalities popping in and out as they died... but none of it seems like it could keep as fresh as, well, endless dreams with a touch of the Twilight Zone. Every story would be its own universe, with a slow thread of Dream's own tale coming in a few times a season. Sort of a mix between Doctor Who and Twilight Zone, really, jumping around in time and reality to explore both humanity through strange eyes.
They could both make decent movies - it's just American Gods was put together as a single story revealing the nature of the gods being depicted in a clear arc, and Sandman was designed as an endlessly serialized exploration of timelessness and dream, with overlapping story arcs.
I'd be more than glad to see either of them explored though - it's always nice to see stories that twists the usual equations of power to produce a more interesting exploration of humanity than just who is powerful. Both these stories feature characters beyond the usual definition of power, and even morality, and use them to push the other characters into more poignant territory.
In any case, here's hoping the series get good enough writers to match the exploration that these kinds of stories demand, without slipping into the common pitfalls we've been seeing with Superman/Heroes/etc, with world-shaping levels of power. When in doubt, at least they can copy Doctor Who/Twilight Zone.
Ryan Fenton
Will Neil fare any better than Alan Moore when it comes to Hollywood? I doubt it. No matter what the screen play looks like when it is green lighted, the finished product will the same crap formula, with the ending reworked three times after subpar audience screenings.
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I remember over a decade ago, when every book and movie review on /. was filled with spammy messages full of referral links. Hope that doesn't happen again.
The story told in the main Sandman arc (which takes up ~75 issues and 10 trade paperbacks) is not something that you can adapt to a feature film. It's too long and complex and the pieces are too beautifully interdependent.
Part of what makes Sandman brilliant is the way in which Gaiman introduces a dozen different plots and subplots, and somehow manages to tie them together by the end. When you first read the Sandman books, many of them seem to be self-contained or episodic in nature... but by the time you've gotten to The Kindly Ones, you realize that the stories aren't self-contained at all. Almost everything in the 75 issues of Sandman (well, let's say 90% of it) is designed to set up a single, very focused story about Morpheus and the decision he must make. Everything is either required for the plot, or it's required for thematic reasons.
Just to take one example: the whole sub-plot about Hob is designed to tell us something about Dream's isolation and how he deals with it. Without that, the events of The Kindly Ones don't make quite as much sense.
There's a better solution, which is just to tell Gaiman to write some more Sandman stories for the screen. We've established that the Endless hang around for billions of years and on billions of worlds-- surely there are a few more stories to tell? It's not that much of an ask. Gaiman has decided over the years that he doesn't mind going back to the Sandman well now and then (often with good results-- I thought Endless Nights was great, for example).
Oh yeah, and Cumberbatch for Morpheus (Gaiman himself said it was a good idea). Linda Hunt for Despair.
This is just discussions. There are a lot of stages to go through until filming actually starts. You need funding, a distributor, and lots of other things need to be right, and can be pulled away at any time.
No way no how can they make a Sandman movie covering 75 comics. so what storyline do they cover? Sandman's capture and subsequent freedom to start (Preludes and Nocturnes) would be the least interesting as all he does is whine. The Corinthian and his fellow serial killers (Doll's House) is worthy of it's own black comedy but would need to be done completely in black and white cartoon format like Sin City or Aeon Flux. A proper Death film could single handedly resurrect goth, but no way to do it properly. The witches in the apartment complex (Doll's House) are deserving of a faux documentary, but I see Depp as the Cuckcoo directed by Tim Burton and it's all turned into a bad Alice in Wonderland flick. I can't imagine any of the later storylines as a stand alone film. Rose has always been one of my favorites and I remember wanting to see a film about her staring Rose McGowan (who in her prime could also have played Death). Most important thing about a Sandman film, the least he's in it the better. A great character, but he's Rod Sterling in Twilight Zone.
good job www.blossomsquare.com "Neil Gaiman has confirmed that things are finally coming together for a Sandman movie adaptation.
...somebody should get moving on an adaptation of Anansi Boys, too. But definitely American Gods, first.
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