Cast A Sandman Movie

[Sandman138]

I did this a while back, but it got deleted when they did that overhaul on the interface, so I'm posting it again. This movie is in development hell (and untill Jon Peters is off of the project I hope to whatever higher power there is that it stays that way) but assuming they could pull it off, who would be your ideal cast and crew for the film? Give your reasons as well. Also, if people feel like doing manips, this thread would welcome them with open arms.

My cast.

Dream: Alan Rickman.

Most people say Johnny Depp, and though he could most likely work well, he is a typecast. Rickman is older, but his voice and demeanor is perfect for Dream.

Desire: Jonathan Rhys Myers

He's got the acting chops and that delicate mix of adrogeny and attractive qualitys. I haven't found anybody better for the part.

Destruction: Hugh Jackman

He's got the rugged looks, but he's also charming.

Delirium: Kate Winslet

She may be too old, and I'm not as sure of her as I used to be, but her performances in Eternall Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Heavenly Creatures still put her on top for me. I'm interested in other suggestions.

Death: Helena Bonham Carter

This is really more of a temporary choice. I'm not sold on her (though the more I think about it, the more I like her) but I can't think of anybody else at the moment. I don't know yet. I'm really desperate for some ideas. Death needs to be somone who is both cheery and at the same time very wise. I've heard Nstalie Portman suggested at times. I think after her role in Closer, that she may be able to do it, but she's not ideal, she's quitting acting soon, and she is perhaps too young. I'm not sure.

Despair: Kathy Bates

Typecast? Most likely. But she does fit the bill

Destiny: David Strathairn

Clooney said on why he cast him as Edward R. Murrow that "He looks like he has the weight of the world on him all the time." I think that is a quality very fitting of Destiny, his voice is also amazing.

 

[LanternFan]

I don't know about the rest of the cast, but I'd take Depp over Rickman to play Dream.

I love Alan Rickman in the right roles, but I think Johnny Depp is a great actor & would be perfect for the part of Morpheus.

As for the rest of the Endless I think you're on the right track. Esp. Kathy Bates as Despair. Though, I think you'd need a younger actress for Delerium.

I'd dearly love to see a Sandman movie happen, but I don't think the studio suits have enough imagination to make it happen, & I don't know if any director could accurately translate Gaiman's pantheon into a film. It may be best left as TPBs.

 

[Sandman138]

Well, there's always Dave McKean. I'd be interested to see how someone like Gondry or Junete directed a Sandman movie. I don't think they could make a movie or even a trilogy that came anywhere close to what the tpb's are. However, I think that they could tell the root story that Gaiman wrote in the introduction to Endless Nights: "The Lord of Dreams realizes that one must change or die, and makes his decision." In someways, the Sandman is about a long and meticulously planned suicide, and then rebirth. I don't know if that story could have anywhere near the impact that it has when you understand all the backstory and everything that leads up to Dream's final decision to take have his sister take him. However, the root story, at least in my mind, could be told in a trilogy. Who knows, it's still fun to think of who you would cast.

 

[Sandman138]

some more Jonathan Rhys Meyers pics as the one I had doesn't seem to work now.

 

[Sandman138]

Another thought for Delirium: Gigi Edgley. She played Chiana on Farscape. She's younger than Winslet and I think she could do a good job.

 

[Darth Elektra]

preety nice pictures.

 

[Darth Elektra]

Hugh would be a good destruction.

 

[Sandman138]

Rickman as Dream

 

[C.F. Kane]

I agree with Johnny Depp as Dream, as well as Bonham-Carter for Death. Straithairn, Winslet, and Jackman are also pretty good choices. Though I would favor Carrie-Anne Moss for Desire. She has a very androgynous sexuality that would fit Desire's ethos quite well. I'd also prefer Pat Carroll for Despair. If you don't know who she is, she was the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid.

However, if a Sandman movie does get made, I would prefer that The Endless be CGI and animated with motion capture by the actors who provide the voices. Here's why. The Endless need two things to complete their characters. 1) a detachment from most other characters around them--placing the principal actors for The Endless outside of the main action would help them reach that state. 2) The will have to have an otherworldly quality about them--no one can argue that to capture the quality of the books, a surreal element will have to play a major part in the film's presentation. Let's face it, as good as modern CGI is, we can still see it from a mile away. CGI Endless would give the audience a feeling that while they may act with many human qualities, these characters are not quite in their place; not quite human.

But that could just be me.

 

[Sandman138]

I agree that they should have a surreal quality, but I don't think you need to make them CGI to do that. There are a number of ways to set them apart.

 

[Sandman138]

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Desire

 

[C.F. Kane]

I agree that they should have a surreal quality, but I don't think you need to make them CGI to do that. There are a number of ways to set them apart.

Such as...?

Don't say makeup because they'll just look like goth mimes instead of celestial incarnations of the basic qualities of all sentient life, as they should be.

 

[Sandman138]

I was going to say lighting. The first technique that comes to mind is backlighting the hell out of them. Normally back lights are somwhat subdued as their purpose is merely to seperate the subject from the background. If you went really heavy on the backlighting though, you would cast something of a halo effect. They would seem to emenate light.

 

[The Question]

About the surrel like quality that we want, I like the CGI idea. If they made the CGI look as much like the actors as possible, that'd be cool. Also, I have a few suggestions. One weird one would be to shoot the entire film backwards, and then dup over their voices. That would look very surreal. Another would be to have the cameramen and lighting guys get really really high before each shooting.

 

[Sandman138]

Oh, I think everyone should be high. Except for the grips, have you ever had a light fall on your head? The smaller ones hurt like a *****... the bigger ones kill you.

 

[3dman27]

here's my cast for a sandman mystery theater movie
wesly dodds /the sandman ryan phillipe`
dian belmont reese witherspoon

 

[The Question]

Oh, I think everyone should be high. Except for the grips, have you ever had a light fall on your head? The smaller ones hurt like a *****... the bigger ones kill you.

Yeah. That (not the light thing) brings up a question. Was Neil Gaiman high when he wrote Sandman? I've always thought that it was too weird for anyone to come up with while sober.

 

[Sandman138]

Honestly, I don't think so. In interviews, he strikes me more as the kind of guy who just has that stuff in his head naturally.

 

[Sandman138]

I just watched Peter Pan again, and it made me really want to see how Donald McAlpine would shoot a Sandman movie.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Dream- Johnny Depp
Delirium- Alison Loman or Bryce Dallas Howard
Destruction- Sean Bean
Loki - Tim Roth
Fiddlers Green- Jim Broadbent
Odin- Ian McKellen
Lucifer Morningstar- Jude Law or David Bowie
Destiny- Jeremy Irons
Cain- Alan Rickman
Abel- Oliver Platt
Desire-Tilda Swinton
Constantine- Paul Bettany

 

[conan69]

Heres a link to the Sandman script that was seriously being considered for a movie in the late 90s.

If I remember correctly Roger Avery wanted to make this and it went nowhere...


http://www.wordplayer.com/archives/SANDMAN.cover.html

 

[Sandman138]

I was never a huge fan of that script. I think it trivializes the Endless and making Dream into more of selfless hero than he really is takes away from his character.

 

[Sandman138]

Bump

Okay, I've been thinking about this and I have a basic idea of what I'd like to see from a Sandman trilogy.

The first film is the hardest, because you somehow have to combine the important events from P&N (his capture, but the rest should be avoided, we don't need to see Morpheus going on a quest to find his junk), DH (Lyta Hall and Daniel, Rose Walker, Gilbert, Corinthian #1), and SoM (Lucifer leaving, Loki being set free). I also think that Calliope has to be in there somewhere (perhaps split it up. show her prediciment in the begining and Sandman rescueing her at the end? It has to be in there though). I don't think there's really enough time to deal with Nada, sucky as that is, so Calliope has to make up for her absence (she's also nessecary because of Orpheus). I would also change the apartments line-up as follows: Rose, Lyta, Gilbert, Thessaly, Wanda. I'm still working this one out. I'll write more later.

The seconed movie should open with the Orpheus and Euridice story. It should then go into Brief Lives.

The third movie should open with A Midsummer Night's Dream, go into The Kindly Ones, and end with The Tempest.

Nowhere near as in depth as the comics, but the main story does get across. Unfortunatly, I can't think of any way to bring Hob Galding into the movies. I had the thought that each DVD should contain certian shorts (ie. the first one would have Men Of Good Fortune while the third would have an abridged version of The Wake) in the special features section. Other than that, there just isn't enough time and you really can't make this longer than a trilogy.

Thoughts?

 

[The Question]

Personally, I'd just turn each volume into a film. It would make a very long film series, but that would be the only way to really capture the essence of Sandman. Also, here are my casting suggestions from the "cast the DC universe" thread:


Destiny: David Strathairn

Death: Summer Glau

Dream: Alan Rickman

Destruction: Sean Astin

Despair: Kathy Bates

Desire: Jamie Lee Curtis

Delirium: Anna Paquin

*continued in next post*

 

[The Question]

Mathew the Raven: Micheal Rosembaum (voice)

Lucifer: Johnny Depp

Dr. Destiny: Mark Hamill

Sexton: Shia Lebeouf

Lucien: Alan Cumming

Cain: Paul Bettany

Able: Billy West

Nada: Gina Torres