Sandman

[Wesley Dodds]

Oh.

Right, er, yeah. Levitt's a good actor and everything, he'll do fine...
It's just I suppose I was expecting an actual director, you know?

...

Actually, no. No, sorry, I don't like this at all. Colour me worried.

 

[Man in the Suit]

He isn't an actual director?

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/don_jon/

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Right, I know about Don Jon. It's just that there's a reason Sandman has taken this long to get a movie.
It's an incredibly dense, sprawling saga. An insanely ambitious project that took Gaiman about 7 years to write, it would be a challenge to adapt for even a seasoned, veteran director.
Levitt -good actor that he is- only has one 90-minute movie under his belt.
And it's a low budget rom-com to boot.

Why exactly is giving this notoriously difficult gig to someone like that a cause for celebration?

 

[conan69]

I hope this happens.

I want a series of films.

 

[Joeyjojo72]

Uh, who in the hell thought this would be a good idea?

Hate to say it, but the Dark Knight trilogy seems to be destroying everything in its wake. Inadvertantly anyway. WB just can't seem to move on.

Oh and i totally called that WB's panicked, post-Nolan half-assery would eventually spill over into Vertigo. I honestly don't care much what they do with their DC universe at this point, but there are several Vertigo properties that i wish were in someone elses hands right about now. Oh well.

No offense to JGL, who did a competent job on DJ. Don't blame him for taking the gig. How Goyer became the head writer for all things DC is completely ****ing beyond me though. The guy's track record (on Non-Nolan projects) is pretty abysmal.

 

[terry78]

I assume JGL has some knowledge and is a Sandman fan so I don't dismiss the idea. I know there were certain directors people had in mind, but if dude genuinely appreciates the characters and universe I say do it. Who among us would not take the chance if offered, unworthy or not?

 

[Keyser Soze]

I'm tentatively excited about this. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an excellent actor, and his debut film as director, Don Jon, is supposed to be quite excellent. This is obviously a much bigger prospect, but I think he has the talent to pull it off. The big struggle will be who they get as writer. The Sandman is going to be very tough to adapt for film, with a story so huge and sprawling it'll be hard to fit it into even a series of films. They'll require someone bold enough to make some difficult changes to the source material, while still staying true to the spirit of the comics.

As far as Goyer goes, I'm happy with his current role based on the article going around. He's attached to co-produce, and draft up a treatment, while they're looking for someone else to do the actual writing. Which seems good to me, as the Dark Knight trilogy has shown he's a great story architect, but much of his other work has shown as an actual screenwriter he can fall short.

There are a lot of concerns and a lot of tough roads to navigate to get this from idea to workable script to film. But I'm rooting for its success, as The Sandman is my all-time favourite comic book, and I'd love to see it done justice on film.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

bad news for sandman fans. a two-three hour adaptation won't do the source material justice at all and with Goyer writing it and Neil nowhere in sight this has desaster written all over it. Sadly. A Gaiman written miniseries for TV was all I asked for and even that WB again couldn't manage.

 

[terry78]

Couldn't that be said for any comic?

 

[Keyser Soze]

bad news for sandman fans. a two-three hour adaptation won't do the source material justice at all and with Goyer writing it and Neil nowhere in sight this has desaster written all over it. Sadly. A Gaiman written miniseries for TV was all I asked for and even that WB again couldn't manage.

1. The original article says that there is an eye towards this being the first in a series of films, so the whole story won't be getting squeezed into a single feature.

2. David Goyer is not attached to write. The original article specifically stated they're looking for a screenwriter.

3. A Gaiman written miniseries for TV could not do the scope of The Sandman justice. Even a luxurious Game of Thrones type budget would not be enough to keep up with the CGI world-building required to bring stuff like The Dreaming to life. I don't want this to look cheap.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Couldn't that be said for any comic?

not really, since Sandman is no ongoing story which you can adapt certain parts of. It is a very complex but ending narrative. you either adapt the whole thing or nothing, everything else wouldn't make sense.

 

[Figs]

I'm excited that JGL is involved and to be honest I don't hate Goyer even though I think it's ridiculous for WB/DC to let him handle all their film projects.

I've never read Sandman before so they would have to **** this up big time on a movie level for me to hate it, not as an adaptation since I won't have the book to compare it to.

 

[Aztec]

Attention WB/DC: ENOUGH WITH DAVID GOYER!

 

[Figs]

Question for fans of the book.

I know it's definitely on the serious side of things kind of like Constantine. For someone who couldn't get through the Constantine books because I found them to be boring, would you recommend Sandman?

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Question for fans of the book.

I know it's definitely on the serious side of things kind of like Constantine. For someone who couldn't get through the Constantine books because I found them to be boring, would you recommend Sandman?

yes, I would

 

[Figs]

yes, I would

Thanks for the reply.

It's not that I get bored easily, I just couldn't get into Constantine for some reason. The subject matter was right up my alley so I figured I would have loved it.

 

[ares834]

Interesting. I've heard only good things about JGL's directorial debut Don Jon so I'm cautiously optimistic about this news.

 

[747]

JGL just confirmed it on Twitter!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt ‏@hitRECordJoe 6m
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm incredibly honored to be working with David Goyer, Warner Bros, and @neilhimself on SANDMAN. #Prelude

 

[terry78]

So Gaiman is going to be having some input. That oughta shut the little urchins up.

 

[Sawyer]

So Gaiman is going to be having some input. That oughta shut the little urchins up.

HE'S JUST IN IT FOR TEH MONEEEEY.

 

[Pickleweasel]

Uh, who in the hell thought this would be a good idea?

Hate to say it, but the Dark Knight trilogy seems to be destroying everything in its wake. Inadvertantly anyway. WB just can't seem to move on.

Oh and i totally called that WB's panicked, post-Nolan half-assery would eventually spill over into Vertigo. I honestly don't care much what they do with their DC universe at this point, but there are several Vertigo properties that i wish were in someone elses hands right about now. Oh well.

No offense to JGL, who did a competent job on DJ. Don't blame him for taking the gig. How Goyer became the head writer for all things DC is completely ****ing beyond me though. The guy's track record (on Non-Nolan projects) is pretty abysmal.

"They will hire a writer shortly"

Doesn't say anything about Goyer writing the movie....

 

[ЯɘvlveR]

jgl is a geek. he will do it justice.

 

[ares834]

JGL just confirmed it on Twitter!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt ‏@hitRECordJoe 6m
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm incredibly honored to be working with David Goyer, Warner Bros, and @neilhimself on SANDMAN. #Prelude

Prelude huh? That seems to suggest they will be adapting the first story arc. Awesome!

But even better news is Gaiman himself will be involved. Color me very excited!

 

[def28]

Wow, pretty much every flick Ive ever wanted adpted is now being made.I agree with everyone that Gaiman should be writing this.

Look forward to seeing Dream and Death brought to the screen.

Edit: Gaiman is involed? Awesome!

 

[Binker]

JGL tweeted about the news, and did a hashtag of Prelude. I guess that's a sign that it is an adaption of Preludes and Nocturnes? That's what others have been guessing.