A feature film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal Sandman comic book has been in development hell for years now, leaving many fans doubtful that the beloved series would ever make it to the big screen. Late last year, however, The Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel screenwriter David S. Goyer (who recently signed a first-look deal with Warner Brothers) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt announced that they were working on an adaptation, with Gaiman himself on board to give them a hand.
There’s no word on when we can expect to see the film hit theaters, or whether or not it’s one of the nine untitled DC projects slated for release between 2016 and 2020. Rumor has it that Gordon-Levitt will star in and direct the project as well, but according to him, his focus right now is nailing the screenplay. He recently spoke with Moviefone, and gave the following update on the project:
“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. 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. 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. “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.”
It’s interesting that Gordon-Levitt doesn’t mention Jack Thorne (Skins, This is England), whose name was attached to the film as recently as February. It could just be that he forgot to mention him, or perhaps he’s no longer working on it.
Regardless, Gordon-Levitt seems confident in their work thus far, and hints that they may have bigger Sandman-universe plans in mind:
“You know, we’re still in the middle of it, so I don’t want to make any claims, but I think we’ve got the right ideas. It’s such a huge world. We’re definitely talking about in terms of a whole world… [But] I can’t say anything committal.”
What do you think of Gordon-Levitt’s comments? Are you happy to hear that he, Goyer, and Gaiman are still hard at work on Sandman? Let us know in the comments seciton below.