Previously, I took a look at the failed Universal Pictures 2005 Namor The Sub-Mariner movie. In the seventh installment of Looking Back, we’ll be examining a character that has a world-wide cult following thanks to the creative genius of one of the most prolific writers of our generation. I’m referring to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman of course and the movie that almost was. As you all know from previous Looking Back installments, we’ll be looking at this stalled film’s development history and attempting to highlight some of the best and worst ideas that arose. We can only hope that something as cool as the Endless and the Lord of Dreams won’t stay in development limbo forever.
Approximately fifteen years ago, Warner Brothers had Sandman being helmed by Pulp Fiction co-writer, Roger Avary and a script being written by Pirates of the Caribbean screenwriters, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. You can read Elliot and Rossio's second draft of Sandman on their website. Of course Neil Gaiman would be intricately involved in the process as well. Serving as Executive Producer on the project was John Peters, who previously served as producer on Tim Burton’s Batman and the unsuccessful Superman Lives. Reportedly, Peters, who is seen as somewhat of a villain amongst fanboys [see Superman Lives] and Avary clashed on the direction of the film and Avary decided to walk away [read fired] from the project. However, Avary and Gaiman were able to strike up an accord and would collaborate on writing the script for the 2007 CGI Beowulf feature. Creatively, Avary wanted the Sandman film to follow the style of Jan Švankmajer, a master of surreal animation and stop motion [claymation and puppetry, think Tim Burton] which seems like it would lends itself well to converting the art from the Sandman to the big screen. Well during its long residence in development hell, Sandman has undergone numerous rewrites. One such script, by William Farmer, had the unfortunate fate to A) totally suck and B) find its way onto the internet. It was so bad that it nearly killed the project. Here’s what AICN had to say about that script:
Mistake number two: did you actually read any issues of the book, Mr. Farmer, or were you doing the evil, semi-retarded bidding of Jon Peters himself? And if the answer is the latter, then tell me, does Mr. Peters in fact have horns and cloven hooves? The soft skull’s a given, but I’m trying to figure out if he has any real malice in his heart. After all, he’s currently working overtime to destroy one of America’s finest icons, Superman, and now he’s actively mauling one of the few examples of true graphic literature. This is one of those cases where changes are made for the sake of making changes, as a matter of ego, and not for any sort of sound dramatic reasons.
At Comic-Con 2007, Gaiman remarked to a fan, "I'd rather see no Sandman movie made than a bad Sandman movie. But I feel like the time for a Sandman movie is coming soon. We need someone who has the same obsession with the source material as Peter Jackson had with Lord of the Rings or Sam Raimi had with Spider-Man. The fan responded that if Gaiman would give him five years, he would make the film himself - to which Gaiman responded, "That's what I mean. I'm growing vats of people like you all around the world. Eventually we'll put a bunch of you in a room with knives, and whoever emerges alive will be the winner and can make the 'Sandman' movie."
A prolific writer in any medium, Neil is very critical of the scripts that are sent for his review. Gaiman called the last screenplay Warner Bros. sent him "not only the worst Sandman script I've ever seen, but quite easily the worst script I've ever read."
At one point, Gaiman got so fed up with the treatment of his work, he said he would write and direct a movie himself, based on Death: The High Cost of Living. While this was going on, film director James Mangold pitched a series concept to cable channel HBO, whilst consulting with Gaiman on an unofficial basis, but this proved to be unsuccessful. Last year, The Hollywood Reporter broke a story that Warner Bros TV was in the process of acquiring television rights from its sister company DC Entertainment and was engaging in preliminary talks with several writer-producers about adapting the comic book series. Most notably, the number one target on that list is Eric Kripke, creator of the CW TV network’s Supernatural. Unfortunately, Kripke reported earlier this year that the development of the CW television series had stalled. A short while later, Geoff Johns took to Twitter to clarify this news and report that development was still actively underway. Bleeding Cool speculates that this could just mean that Warner Bros. has decided to move forward on the project without Kripke but nothing is confirmed at this moment.
In comic news, many fans are wondering and speculating as to whether Gaiman’s Sandman will be returned to the mainstream DC universe. Others are wondering if Sandman will be featured/cameo in the forthcoming HBO series about Gaiman’s other fan favorite property, American Gods. But just like the live-action development rumors, it seems the fans will have to rely on hopes and rumors to keep the embers glowing on their desires to see the Lord of Dreams in the flesh. My personal favorite is the one about Guillermo del Toro and Gaiman teaming up to finally get this project moving again. But there is indeed hope, with words like these coming from Neil himself:
Fifteen years ago, when I would go in for meetings at studios, the people who had the power to greenlight things and make things happen, they didn’t really know who I was. They weren’t sure what Sandman was. Their assistants weren’t sure what Sandman was. But the guy who would bring you the bottle of water, the interns, the assistants to the assistants, the bottom-rung people — they knew who I was. These were the guys who would sidle up to me in the corridors and say, "I love what you do." The interesting thing is now, 15 years on, those guys are running studios.
Matthew Vaughn revealed that he and Gaiman have discussed The Sandman.
Gaiman on taking the series to HBO.
Many fans believe that Johnny Depp is the perfect choice to play Morpheus.
LOOKING BACK SERIES
For the uninitiated, The Sandman is a comic book series penned by Neil Gaiman and published by DC/Vertigo from 1989-1996. It almost singlehandedly brought intellectual respectability to comic books, winning over a large readership beyond the comic book ghetto. It remains the only comic to ever win the World Fantasy Award. The series chronicles the adventures of Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, and is broadly horror or at least dark fantasy, layered with a complex matrix of references from mythology, literature and the wider DC universe in which the stories take place. The series kicks off with Sleep of the Just in which Morpheus escapes a decades-long imprisonment, exacts a terrible vengeance on his gaoler before setting out to restore his kingdom which has fallen into ruin after years of neglect. Dream, we learn, is one of The Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters that includes Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium, each of whom has their own kingdom, and the subsequent stories interweave the adventures of Dream and The Endless, as well as various characters from the DC universe.
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