At last report, Jack Thorne ("A Long Way Down") had signed on to write the adapted screenplay with Gaiman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David S. Goyer are producing the project.
The 75-issue comic follows Dream (aka. Morpheus), the Lord of the dream world who is held captive for seven decades by an occult ritual. Having escaped, his kingdom has fallen into disrepair in his absence and he sets about changing his old ways - hard for a being who has been around for billions of years.
DC Entertainment's film guru Geoff Johns was said to be high on Goyer's take.
Both big and small screen adaptations of Gaiman's comic have been in development, but none of them have ever really gotten anywhere despite some major names being mentioned. The story format would also be tricky to adapt - the elaborate story arcs too complicated and lengthy to play out on film, while the dense and rich visual world is too expensive to produce as a TV series.
The series features various elements of mythology, horror, historical events and absurdist humor. Characters include Dream's siblings such as his gothic punk rocker looking sister Death, his talking animal assistants, and The Corinthian who has two mouths for eyes and who is immortal
There's still no word as to who might play the lead here.
Appearing at the Guys Choice Awards over the weekend, Gordon-Levitt offered up a status update to MTV saying that progress is happening but taking time:
"It's really good, man. It's slow but steady. It's a really complicated adaptation because those comics, they're brilliant. But they're not written as a whole. It's not like 'Watchmen,' which is a graphic novel that has a beginning, middle, and end. 'Sandman' was written over the course of whatever - I forget exactly, six or seven years. One at a time. One little 20-page issue at a time. And to try to take that and make it into something that's a feature film - a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end - is complicated."
JGL says that those who go in expecting something akin to the big action-packed blockbusters that the genre mostly consists of these days--will be disappointed:
"Big spectacular action movies are generally about crime fighters fighting crime and blowing sh-t up. This has nothing to do with that. And it was actually one of the things that Neil Gaiman said to me, he said 'Don't have any punching.' Because he never does. If you read the comics, Morpheus doesn't punch anybody. That's not what he does. It's going to be like a grand spectacular action film, but that relies on none of those same old ordinary cliches. So, that's why it's taking a lot time to write, but it's going to be really good."
When the film will go into production is anyone's guess. We do know that the film is NOT part of the DC Cinematic Universe.
Thanks for sharing this! I look forward to anything JGL has his hands on. I can't say I've read these comics though.
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