It surprised many when WB’s DC comics film slate was revealed and there was one notable absence, Sandman from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Goyer. We later learned that since the film is under’s the Vertigo banner, it was never going to be a part of the DC announcement and JGL offered a brief update on the film at the start of the month. One notable difference in this attempted adaptation is that series creator Neil Gaiman has been present for many meetings, and read the drafts of the script.
“I really am [glad to have more input],” Gaiman tells RadioTimes. “My position on it has always been, for over 25 years now, I would rather see no Sandman movie than a bad Sandman movie. A couple of times, people say, ‘It’s a crime there’s never been a Sandman movie’, and a couple of times, to be honest, I have thrown my body in front of a bus on a couple of bad ones over the years. I’m just happy that no bad Sandman movie has ever been made. But I’m really hoping that a good one will be. They’re a good team. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in charge, his instincts are good and he loves the material. He wants it to be true to the material.”
Gaiman went on to talk about the current draft of the script, which he says should be arriving shortly.
“Every now and then, I’ll come in and last time I was in was earlier this year spending a day in a hotel room with Joe, and going over everything and answering questions with him and so on and so forth. So they’ve written a script. I got a phone call about two, three weeks ago from Joe and David saying, ‘Jack did a script, we read it, we want some things done to it. We want you to see it, but not this version. The next version will be in three weeks and then you’ll be the first person to see it.’ So I am now a week before seeing the script. It’s going to come in just before Christmas. I’m nervous, I’m on tenterhooks. But do I have good feelings? Yeah I do.”
Who should play the titular character of Morpheus though? Gaiman has thoughts that should delight fans, despite the two of them having strong Marvel Studios ties.
“It’s a funny thing with Morpheus. Again, it’s that thing where you look around and think, ‘Yes this person would be a fantastic person’, and then time passes. There was a time Johnny Depp would’ve been a great Morpheus, but now he’s too old and it’s fine. I think the first time I saw Benedict was as Sherlock Holmes, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s incredibly Morpheus’. And fans probably thought the same because they immediately started doing fan-art, meshing the two of them up…Then again, Tom Hiddleston is still out there! And the truth is, as far as I’m concerned, anybody who sounds English with great cheekbones can probably pull it off.”
Sandman, which launched DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, ran for 75 issues beginning in 1989. Gaiman’s worlds-within-worlds weaved an episodic anthology, focusing on the allegorical character of Dream and his brothers and sisters, known as the Endless (Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny). Levitt is set to direct the film which features a script by Jack Thorne. A release date has yet to be set.
(Photo Credit: Lia Toby/WENN.com)
