Joel Schumacher Eyeing Neil Gaiman's Sandman!
Written by Robert Sanchez
Saturday, 03 February 2007
The IESB had the opportunity to speak with veteran director Joel Schumacher during the press junket for The Number 23 today in Los Angeles. Amongst the many things that I had to ask Joel big on my list was what other comic book character he would like to tackle? The response - Neil Gaimans Sandman!
The possibility of a big screen live action feature film of Sandman has been talked about by many filmmakers, but for the past few years, it has become almost like the Holy Grail of comic book movie adaptations, unattainable.
Alan Moores Watchmen was facing a very similar problem for many years until recently. It is currently in development with Zack Snyder (300) at the helm.
Trying to turn a seventy-five issue opus into a two-hour film is almost an impossible task.
Last year during the San Diego Comic Con, Neil Gaiman told his fans, "I'd rather no Sandman movie got made than [to have] a bad Sandman movie."
That brings me to what Schumacher told me today. He would like to do a Sandman movie
but can he get it right?
Schumacher has delivered many good films including The Lost Boys, A Time to Kill, Falling Down, St. Elmos Fire, 8MM and Phone Booth.
But, of course, we cant forget about the two Batman films that he directed. While I enjoyed Batman Forever for the most part, you have to admit that Val Kilmer as the Bat was pretty cool and Jim Carrey as the Riddler was genius, it is difficult to forgive him for Batman and Robin.
Everything from Arnold as Mr. Freeze (Patrick Stewart wouldve been perfect!), Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, and the infamous Bat Nipples, Batman and Robin was a complete disaster.
But who was at fault? The blame will always land on the director even though the studio had to sign off on all the kooky details. The damage that film caused to the Batman franchise was insurmountable and it took 10 years and a total reboot to make the movie going audience have faith in Gothams favorite hero once again.
Would the studio allow him to direct Sandman? Joel himself wasnt to sure if they would but like I mentioned earlier, he does have a pretty decent track record and I believe that a lot will have to do with how The Number 23 and his next horror film, Town Creek, perform at the box office.
Is he right for the job? Thats for you guys to decide.
Stay tuned for our exclusive video interview Joel Schumacher on The Number 23!
The Sandman is a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman. Published in the United States by DC Comics for 75 issues from 1988 until 1996, it was one of the flagship titles of DC's Vertigo imprint, and is currently kept in print as a series of ten trade paperbacks. It is widely considered one of the most original, sophisticated and artistically ambitious comic book series of the modern age and will be the only comic book to ever win the World Fantasy Award [1]. By the time of the series' conclusion, it had made significant contributions to the artistic maturity of English language comic books and become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right.
The plot, as summarized by its creator is: The king of dreams learns one must change or die and then makes his decision. Thus stated, the plot of the The Sandman centers around the protagonist, Dream, the immortal anthropomorphic personification of dreams. The series begins with the end of a long imprisonment of Dream and this first third of the series somewhat conforms to the horror genre. Later, the series evolves into an elaborate fantasy series, incorporating elements of classical and contemporary mythology, ultimately placing its protagonist in the role of tragic hero.
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