Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is one of those properties that just can’t seem to make its way to the big screen, or small screen for that matter, no matter how many comic book fanboys want it to happen. It seems like it’s getting closer to reality, though, as rumors about a pitch from Dark Knight and Man of Steel scribe David S. Goyer for a film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt are getting a little more credence.
This time the news comes from Deadline, which is reporting that Gordon-Levitt is finalizing a deal to produce a Sandman film, as well as star in it and also potentially direct it. If that’s true, he could quickly become the best friend or worst enemy of countless hordes of people who insist they’re not reading comic books, they’re reading graphic novels.
The Sandman series of comics/graphic novels follows the story of Dream, a rather goth-looking, godlike fellow who rules over the realm of dreams. He has all sorts of very literary-minded misadventures in which you’re likely to see characters from all manner of mythology and popular fiction. The series started all the way back in 1989 and has been revisited by Gaiman several times since the original run. Along with Alan Moore and Frank Miller, Gaiman heralded in the auteur age of comic books where people actually started buying comics based as much on who wrote them as which characters were in them.
With such a distinctive visual style as Sandman has had, it will certainly be a challenge for any film adaptation to do it justice. Still, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a pretty talented dude and if he is enthusiastic enough about the project to potentially be playing three different roles in its creation, there is a decent enough chance that it could turn out well.
We can dream, can’t we?