Plenty of comic book screen adaptations have been produced without the blessing let alone the involvement of the property’s creators. Alan Moore is perhaps the most infamous and outspoken example of a comic book writer who loathes adaptations of his works and refuses to be affiliated with them (even when they turn out to be Damon Lindelof’s Emmy-winning followup to Watchmen).
But for the team behind Netflix’s upcoming series The Sandman, based on the seminal DC Comics series by Neil Gaiman, having Gaiman onboard was crucial to their involvement. Gaiman serves as one of the show’s executive producers and writers along with David Goyer and showrunner Allan Heinberg.
Goyer told IGN during a preview event last week for Netflix’s Geeked Week that he had previously worked with Gaiman on a different project roughly a decade ago that never ended up happening but that the two remained friends in the years since. Goyer said he would not have done the project without Gaiman’s involvement. Even once he had Gaiman onboard, Goyer still had to convince Heinberg to join them, an offer Heinberg initially turned down.
“I spent the first two weeks of the job saying absolutely not, I can't do it because I went back and reread the books,” Heinberg recalled during the Geeked Week preview. “I said in order to make this work, we would need to be able to do this and do that. And I'm not sure Neil's gonna want me to do that. And David said to me, many many times, I promise you, Neil is gonna love you. I love everything you're saying, and he will work with you to make it possible for you.” Heinberg, obviously, ended up agreeing to serve as the series’ showrunner.
Reluctance to do the series without Gaiman’s involvement also extended to some of the cast. “Having Neil’s blessing was paramount. Yeah, the most important thing and the reason why, certainly while I wanted in on with this,” self-professed “obsessive Sandman fan” Tom Sturridge, who plays the main role of Dream, told IGN at the Geeked Week event.
Fellow cast member Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who plays Death, echoed Sturridge’s sentiments and said they owe their casting to Gaiman: “Knowing that he hand-picked us made me feel so much more ready for the role because you're being chosen by the person who this is their idea. This is their brainchild. This is something that Neil has worked on for such a long time.”
The Sandman languished in Hollywood development hell for years when it was initially pitched to studios as a feature film. In the end, the team behind the Netflix show believes the television series format was ultimately the only way Sandman could have been realized onscreen.
“You need to explore all the different stories within it to do it justice and if you're making a film you're going to have to pick a narrative that I think would be untrue to the source material,” Sturridge explained.
Howell-Baptiste concurred: “I think you should just allow yourself the breathing room to really explore these stories. What you'd have [as a film] is you'd have a truncated version where you're trying to satisfy a lot of needs and wants and I think that would never really honor the fan base.”
For more coverage, check out our breakdown of who's who in The Sandman and discover everything that was announced on Day One of Geeked Week. The Sandman debuts on Netflix on August 5.
Continue reading...
But for the team behind Netflix’s upcoming series The Sandman, based on the seminal DC Comics series by Neil Gaiman, having Gaiman onboard was crucial to their involvement. Gaiman serves as one of the show’s executive producers and writers along with David Goyer and showrunner Allan Heinberg.
Goyer told IGN during a preview event last week for Netflix’s Geeked Week that he had previously worked with Gaiman on a different project roughly a decade ago that never ended up happening but that the two remained friends in the years since. Goyer said he would not have done the project without Gaiman’s involvement. Even once he had Gaiman onboard, Goyer still had to convince Heinberg to join them, an offer Heinberg initially turned down.
“I spent the first two weeks of the job saying absolutely not, I can't do it because I went back and reread the books,” Heinberg recalled during the Geeked Week preview. “I said in order to make this work, we would need to be able to do this and do that. And I'm not sure Neil's gonna want me to do that. And David said to me, many many times, I promise you, Neil is gonna love you. I love everything you're saying, and he will work with you to make it possible for you.” Heinberg, obviously, ended up agreeing to serve as the series’ showrunner.
Reluctance to do the series without Gaiman’s involvement also extended to some of the cast. “Having Neil’s blessing was paramount. Yeah, the most important thing and the reason why, certainly while I wanted in on with this,” self-professed “obsessive Sandman fan” Tom Sturridge, who plays the main role of Dream, told IGN at the Geeked Week event.
Fellow cast member Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who plays Death, echoed Sturridge’s sentiments and said they owe their casting to Gaiman: “Knowing that he hand-picked us made me feel so much more ready for the role because you're being chosen by the person who this is their idea. This is their brainchild. This is something that Neil has worked on for such a long time.”
The Sandman languished in Hollywood development hell for years when it was initially pitched to studios as a feature film. In the end, the team behind the Netflix show believes the television series format was ultimately the only way Sandman could have been realized onscreen.
“You need to explore all the different stories within it to do it justice and if you're making a film you're going to have to pick a narrative that I think would be untrue to the source material,” Sturridge explained.
Howell-Baptiste concurred: “I think you should just allow yourself the breathing room to really explore these stories. What you'd have [as a film] is you'd have a truncated version where you're trying to satisfy a lot of needs and wants and I think that would never really honor the fan base.”
For more coverage, check out our breakdown of who's who in The Sandman and discover everything that was announced on Day One of Geeked Week. The Sandman debuts on Netflix on August 5.
Continue reading...