People have been trying to get a Sandman movie adaptation into development for a long time now. It is clear why they want to make a movie based on the property. Neil Gaiman is one of the best fantasy writers on the planet and his Sandman comics might be some of the best in the business. However, they were not so much contained stories as 75 issues of a dreamlike storyline. That is why there hasn’t been a Sandman movie yet.
Well, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Goyer are trying to change that. Levitt has been attached to the property for awhile and is supposed to star in and direct the Sandman movie for Warner Bros. There are some expectations that the Sandman movie will be one of the upcoming DC Comics properties hitting between now and 2019.
However, Gordon-Levitt said that might be a little hasty.
There’s not a script yet, we’re still kind of working it out because it’s such a complicated adaptation because Sandman wasn’t written as novels,” Gordon-Levitt told Moviefone. “Sin City was written as a novel. “Sandman” is 75 episodic issues. There’s a reason people have been trying and failing to adapt Sandman for the past 20 years.”
He has a good point there. A lot of people have pointed out that Sandman might be better off as a long form television series, but I don’t think that would work either. Seriously, that entire series was pure fantasy and it would take a special hand to make a TV series based on it that would have an audience big enough to follow along.
However, condensing things into a movie, especially one starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, might be an easier sell. However, the problem then lies in figuring out what story the Sandman movie will tell.
“Right now we’re working on a script. It’s me and Goyer and the screenwriter and Neil Gaiman, as well as the good folks at DC and Warner Bros,” Gordon-Levitt said. “It’s a really cool team of people. It’s a lot of the same people who worked on the Nolan Batman movies. It’s really exciting.”
Part of that statement sounds great. I love the fact that they have Neil Gaiman actively working with them to get this project off the ground. I also have a lot more faith in David Goyer than others because I thought Man of Steel was a great movie. People who hated that film, might find his contributions here worrisome.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt did say that progress is being made. He mentioned that they have the “right ideas” and that they are talking about using the “whole world” of The Sandman.