Neil Gaiman Confirms Movie Talks For Sandman, American Gods 35
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.'"
Endless (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Like "Anansi boys" better than "American Gods" (Score:1)
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.
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I bought the Sandman comic books ("graphic novels"???) as they came out. Didn't start until about issue 17 tho, so I read the first series in digest form.
I worry about what the sausage mill that is Hollywood will do with the stories.
Hyperion (Score:4, Interesting)
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The website hyperionmovie.com seems to have last been updated in October 2010, and what they had there was not super substantial in the first place. My guess? Deader than the City of Poets. More dead than God's Grove or Hebron. Makes the flippin' interiors of Labyrinth worlds after the Opus Dei look positively lively.
Seriously, I think someone took a good look at the idea of covering a Priest, Poet, Soldier, Scholar, Detective, and Consul (six major viewpoint characters) and giving them intelligible stories
Re:Hyperion (Score:4, Informative)
The twitter account @hyperionmovie (probably managed by a marketing person) has seen the last activity on October last year, so let's still hope! Maybe it's only dead as a dead pope.
A New issue of Sandman (came out two weeks ago)! (Score:2, Informative)
Strange (Score:2)
Series/Movie Reversed? (Score:3)
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
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I think a movie is too short to get much out of American Gods. The story in the novel doesn't need much in the way of special effects or exotic locations so you could probably get a lot of episodes for the same price as one movie and be able to cover more than one major idea out of the book.
Sandman IMHO is easier to cut a movie sized chunk out of.
Either way, Neil Gaiman has done a lot with TV series and at least three Hollywood movies (which is why
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Nah American Gods is perfect for a modern TV series. They had so damned many with so many funky personalities and behaviors you couldn't really touch on most in a movie.
This will give ample opportunity to explore all the flashback origins and other historical incidents inbetween the ongoing storyline.
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About a year ago the idea for American Gods was to make this a HBO series. The first season would be about 10 episodes and cover the book. Not sure what the plans were for the next 6 seasons but Neil said he had something up his sleeve.
The HBO project has been officially killed but I would not be surprised if something similar cropped up for the American Gods TV shows.
For Sandman, I have no idea. There have been some horrible scripts floating out there since the early 90s but I don’t think that is wha
RE: Series/Movie Reversed? (Score:1)
Both would probably do better as a series since they create developed realities with lots of potential for 'new' story lines. Sandman does have much more of a limited story arc overall, where American Gods, as well as I recall doesn't really. For an American Gods series, I'm concerned it would just be like Supernatural, which really comes off as somebody wanted to do a Hellblazer or American Gods series, but couldn't get permission.
--Why not comment ever few years..
Neil, Meet Alan (Score:2)
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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Well there was the Coraline book that most people felt was a good adaptation, and he has written for Babylon 5 and Doctor Who which were also well regarded.
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Movies based on Alan Moore graphic novels have sucked because Alan Moore is an idiot. He could have easily retained creative control of his movies and we wouldn't have to suffer through the Johnny Depp's Inspector Frederick Abberline that would have been beaten to death for his haircut by his coworkers or Sean Connery's portrayal of the never done a bit of opium in his life Allan Quatermain.
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Yes. Neil has done some good stuff already.
Alan Moore has had a horrible experience with Hollywood. Some of that is Hollywood, some of that is Moore being an anarchist who does not play well with corporations or other people. He has a hard time sharing.
I've got a bad feeling about this (Score:3)
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.
Don't get too excited just yet (Score:1)
Sandman or Endless or Death or Rose or Barbie? (Score:2)
"Neil Gaiman has confirmed that things are finally (Score:1)
Anansi Boys... (Score:2)