While promoting KICK-ASS at the South by Southwest festival this past weekend, director Matthew Vaughn discussed the possibility of doing a live action version of the SANDMAN with MTV.
For those of you can’t watch the video, here’s what he said…
"[Neil and I] talked about it… I think as a movie it's virtually impossible to make properly… I think it would make an amazing HBO series, you know, where you can just really create that world… There's too much to get into an hour and a half, two hours."
No stranger to comic adaptations and, specifically, Neil Gaiman adaptations, Vaughn directed the big screen version of STARDUST a couple years back.
There’s been talk of a SANDMAN movie for years. That Akiva Goldman-written screenplay, which put the Sandman against a king of bad dreams, as I recall, is still floating around somewhere online. Strangely, I remember Gaiman talking about a movie version of DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING a while back with the certainty that he was going to write and direct it. According to his Twitter account, though, it appears as if those plans have been dashed in favor of letting HELLBOY and BLADE II director Guillermo del Toro handle it.
So tweets Mr. Gaiman…
@neilhimself Guillermo was in fine form. Many movies were discussed over lunch including Death and The Hobbit.
I suppose there is always the possibility that the two guys were talking about death, in general. You know, the acceptance of life’s fleeting nature and so on, but the chance is greater that they’re were discussing everybody's favorite cute goth Endless, Death. It seemed like Gaiman was going to join Millar and several other comic creators in making the transition to the director’s chair, but alas…
As for my opinion? I think DEATH would make an easier transition to the silver screen. It’s a little more of a two-minute pop single to Sandman’s three hour concept album, and I’m sure it could ride on the goth-chic those TWILIGHT movies have ushered in. But SANDMAN? Leave it as is, brother. It’s fine that way. It’s already so wonderfully dense and literary, why run it through a development process that’s just going to slice all of that off?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.