As The Sandman's August premiere date draws nearer, the seminal comic book's creator, Neil Gaiman, has praised the work that went into bringing his vision to the screen for the first time during a new interview with Total Film.
There have been several attempts to adapt the classic comic series over the years, but Gaiman is relieved that none of those previous efforts ever saw the light of day.
“I didn’t have faith that we’d always get here,” the author tells the mag, “but I had faith that the important thing was to stop bad versions being made. Once a bad version is made, you never quite come back from that. It may sound silly, but when I was 14 or 15, my favorite comic was Howard The Duck. Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Frank Brunner, satire, madness, glory... I was so excited when I heard George Lucas was making a movie. And then A New Breed Of Hero came out. Howard The Duck became a bad joke. I never wanted that to happen to Sandman and I saw scripts that would have made that happen.”
Of course, despite the trailers going over well enough (for the most part), many Sandman fans are similarly concerned about the Netflix series. Gaiman can't guarantee that the show will deliver "the Sandman of your dreams," but does "promise I’m proud of what we’ve done."
"I can say that Stephen Fry as Gilbert is waiting for you, Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian, the serial-killers’ convention," he continues. "We also get to punch above our weight on casting, because there are people who love Sandman and desperately want to be in it. Everybody is on Sandman because they love it. And it’s magic."
The Sandman is set to premiere on August 5. Check out a new image featuring Dream and Lucienne below, along with the recently released trailer, and let us know what you think.
"There is another world that waits for all of us when we close our eyes and sleep — a place called the Dreaming, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge), gives shape to all of our deepest fears and fantasies. But when Dream is unexpectedly captured and held prisoner for a century, his absence sets off a series of events that will change both the dreaming and waking worlds forever. To restore order, Dream must journey across different worlds and timelines to mend the mistakes he’s made during his vast existence, revisiting old friends and foes, and meeting new entities — both cosmic and human — along the way."
The Sandman also stars Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) as black magician Roderick Burgess, and Asim Chaudhry (Black Mirror) and Sanjeeve Bhaskar (Yesterday) as Abel and Cain. Desire and Despair will be played by Mason Alexander Park and Donna Preston, respectively, while Joely Richardson will play Ethel Cripps, and David Thewlis will take on the role of her son John Dee, aka the deranged Dr. Destiny.
The 10-episode first season of The Sandman will adapt the first two arcs of the Vertigo comics series, "Preludes and Nocturnes" and "The Dolls House."