Sandman TV Show Still Happening, for Better or Worse

[Scott Bullock]

Sandman TV Show Still Happening, for Better or Worse

Fans of The Sandman graphic novels are either cheering or cursing, because despite earlier reports the books are, in fact, being turned into a TV show.

According to the Twitter feed of Geoff Johns, DC Comic's Chief Creative Officer, the Sandman TV adaptation lives, with the support of series creator Neil Gaiman.

Eric Kripke, the creator of Supernatural who was assigned to help work on the Sandman project, said recently that "Unfortunately, for a lot of varying reasons, Sandman is not in the works, at least for this season," and that the show "just didn't quite happen this season through nobody's fault, and hopefully we can do it again in the future."

Most everyone took that to mean that the show just wasn't going to happen. It was dead, deceased, and pushing up daisies.

Much to the surprise of all, Johns tweeted "Correction to world: The Sandman is AWAKE! Psyched to be working with [Gaiman] on developing one of the greatest series ever!" followed quickly by "Sandman in any form - comics to live action - doesn't work without [Gaiman]."

So why the confusion? Well, it seems to me that at no point did Kripke say the planned show was totally dead, just that it wasn't happening this season, or perhaps he just decided to play a clever prank on us all. I'm leaning towards the former.

Whatever the case, the show is being made (for now, anyway). For some fans, adapting The Sandman to TV is a wonderful idea, exposing the series to a wider audience; for others it is basically putting the Mona Lisa through a blender and calling it better for it. As for me, I'll settle in at the "extreme ambivalence" point of the spectrum.

Source: ComingSoon [http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=75280]

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[Soxafloppin]

This is the Sandman from the DC universe? Didn't he wear a Gasmask type thing?

 

[i am not god]

Hell. Yes. The sandman series is amazing.I hope they do it justice.

 

[gigastar]

Nrrrgh, every time i hear of this i keep getting confused with Marvel's and DC's respective sandman's.

Maybe itll be interesting.

 

[The Grim Ace]

I'm not sure how they can successfully adapt this for tv, a movie would make more sense, but if Neil Gaiman oversees it or -- better yet -- writes it, this might work out pretty well. Though, for tv, they'd have to tone down a great deal of it, could probably pull it off but I was completely content with the series as it already was.

*indulges in some more of it*

 

[Sandytimeman]

I remember a year or so ago I found two large hard bound books that looked..freaking awesome. After taking them home from the libraries graphic novel section I had my own experience with the Sandman series. I don't really see this working out in a TV series. But I have been wrong before.

 

[ciancon]

This is the Sandman from the DC universe? Didn't he wear a Gasmask type thing?

Different sandman. Although the one that this article is talking about does at times wear a gasmask-like....mask (it's actually the head and spine of a powerful demon).

 

[blackwlf]

Different sandman. Although the one that this article is talking about does at times wear a gasmask-like....mask (it's actually the head and spine of a powerful demon).

His mask is made from the bones of a dead god, actually, according to "A Hope In Hell".

On the direct topic, I've got to go with the OP, extreme ambivalence. As long as Gaiman is working on it, it shouldn't be a complete waste, but I really don't see how they could do a TV series around Dream and his siblings. . . maybe go with CannibalRobots idea, other characters interactions with the Endless. That could work.

 

[ciancon]

Different sandman. Although the one that this article is talking about does at times wear a gasmask-like....mask (it's actually the head and spine of a powerful demon).

His mask is made from the bones of a dead god, actually, according to "A Hope In Hell".

On the direct topic, I've got to go with the OP, extreme ambivalence. As long as Gaiman is working on it, it shouldn't be a complete waste, but I really don't see how they could do a TV series around Dream and his siblings. . . maybe go with CannibalRobots idea, other characters interactions with the Endless. That could work.

I knew i'd be corrected on that! I did try to find the info in the graphic novel but i couldn't remember in which book it was explained.

 

[Kwatsu]

Well, I liked Neverwhere... though that was an original series, and I have a hard time imagining Sandman as anything but a comic. Still, who knows?

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

Well, I liked Neverwhere... though that was an original series, and I have a hard time imagining Sandman as anything but a comic. Still, who knows?

Neverwhere was based on a novel by Gaiman.

OT: I haven't read much of the comic, but I guess it could work as long as they don't half-ass it.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Well, I liked Neverwhere... though that was an original series, and I have a hard time imagining Sandman as anything but a comic. Still, who knows?

Neverwhere was based on a novel by Gaiman.

OT: I haven't read much of the comic, but I guess it could work as long as they don't half-ass it.

Yeah, Neverwhere was pretty good and Stardust didn't get a bad treatment (generic as hell? Yes - bad? No) so it can be done. Still, Sandman... they'd have to try real hard to make that one work.

 

[Verlander]

Could be good, but I won't hold my breath. I'd prefer Gaiman to write an original television show, and leave Sandman to the print media, but what the heck...

 

[Living Contradiction]

Well, they got the medium right at least. There's too much to fit into a movie or even a series of movies to do this content justice. The fact that Gaiman is on board is a hopeful sign.

But this is 21st century television, a place where good stories go to die...

I wish I knew which network was planning on bankrolling this one so I could get an idea as to whether I can be hopeful or hopeless.

 

[Xanadu84]

Gaiman supports it? That makes me cautiously optimistic...but the overwhelming number of things I can imagine going wrong scares me. Ill watch it, but until then I dare not give myself any expectations.

::Edit:: I could see AMC making a good version of this. I will upgrade to optimistic if it is AMC.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

This is the Sandman from the DC universe? Didn't he wear a Gasmask type thing?

I haven't read the full series yet (The volumes are rather expensive. I'm about halfway through) but I think he only wore the mask in battle. At other times he would leave his face unmasked.

Anyway I have to say there is a lot of potential in this but also a lot of obstacles. As a series I feel its biggest obstacles are it's budget and some of it's content (considering many of the themes in The Sandman it would have to be shown late at night).

In terms of budget the biggest costs would likely be in the areas of visuals and cast. Considering the beautiful yet dark and bizarre world of The Sandman, if I had to choose someone to be in charge of visuals I wouldn't settle for anyone other than Guillermo del Toro as, out of all the film makers I know of, I feel his style bears the closest resemblance to Sandmans. In terms of cast Gaiman has expressed a desire in the past to have Brian Blessed play Destruction (although he may have given up on that due to Blessed's age) and when I look at certain characters I can only think of one person to play them. For example, when I see Fiddler's Green I immediately think Stephen Fry. Put that together and you would require a very high budget.

It may work better as a long film saga; as a big film series it has a better chance of getting a sufficient budget and big names to work on it. If I were to go this route I would make Dream Country and Endless Nights into two mini-series (as Dream Country is essentially comprised of side stories and Endless Nights is a follow up).

I would also adapt this:

As a teaser poster then create a new one when the trailer was released.

But enough of what I'd do. Either way it goes it has a problem; if it is adapted into a TV Series it could end up in Development Hell for a time period on par with The Thief and the Cobbler (look it up) but if it becomes a series of films people may get tired of waiting for the final film. Then again if they can wait for Harry Potter I'd wager they can wait for Sandman.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

This is the Sandman from the DC universe? Didn't he wear a Gasmask type thing?

Different Sandman. The original Sandman (with the mask) stole the sleep dust from this Sandman (Dream).

Sandman 1: Mortal; Sandman 2: Very Immortal.

I love the books. Totally totally love them, so...I won't be watching the TV series. It would hurt too much to see it ruined.

 

[Stein Inge]

I can't see this working.
At all.
Ever.
Leave it alone.
Move on.
Do something else.
Like pottery.
Or bring back Carnivale.
Yes, do that!
Carnivale!

 

[The Random One]

This is the Sandman from the DC universe? Didn't he wear a Gasmask type thing?

I haven't read the full series yet (The volumes are rather expensive. I'm about halfway through) but I think he only wore the mask in battle. At other times he would leave his face unmasked.

No, no. There are plenty of characters named Sandman. When Gaiman stepped out to take over the series, a character with the name already existed. In the very first issue, a (single!) panel explains that the previous Sandman, (a regular DC superhero who attacked villains with a gas that made them hallucinate, and wore a gasmask so the gas wouldn't affect him) chose his name and identity by following subconscious clues of the quasi-divine extra-dimensional entity that is the main character of Gaiman's series. Essentially, Gaiman's Sandman spent most of the 20th century trapped, and some people felt this in some way they couldn't quite describe and tried to somehow fill this void; non-Gaiman's Sandman did so by trying to fulfill his position in a way he couldn't quite understand.

Huh. So this is what being a comic book nerd feels like.

OT, this is great news, and I dare say that the people who think this is a bad idea are succumbing to the same sort of preconception as those who say 'video games are violent'. 'Video games are violent' and 'television series are bad' are similar phallacies because they both mistake media with content. In fact, just as there's nothing inherent about video games that forces them to be violent, but both the industry and the players' expectation cause violent games to be more well known and thus draw most of the money and minds, there's nothing inherent about television that makes it worse than, say, cinema, (and I'm sure that the same people who are boo-booing this would squee if a movie had just been announced, even if it didn't have Gaiman's approval) but because TV industry is even more complex than cinema, especially in the US, and people's expectation are lower, shit flies on TV more easily.

Sandman would make an awful movie. Watchman proved it. Sure, there were a bunch of things on it that were essentially dumbing down, but several of them didn't work because of the pacing. There was no way to tell Rorschach's backstory in the movie without sticking it like a sore thumb in the middle of the second act, for instance, whereas in the comics they could just use an entire issue on it. And Watchman may be a long form story, but Sandman is like ten times longer. Okay, if you cut everything that's not essential to the story it's maybe only five times longer (and fifty times less appealing - my favourite Sandman stories are those that have nothing to do with the main story, like most in Fables & Reflections).

This is not to say this will be awesome. Lots of things can happen, some dumbing down is certain to occur, several great plots are certain to be cut down just because they don't want to spend money on graphical effects, and the very first arc is nigh impossible to reconcile with the greek tragedy it becomes later on. But it's definitively too soon to call. Look out for Gaiman dropping his support.