With so much talk about comics being adapted into movies, one long awaited graphic novel adaptation we have yet to see is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and we figure now’s the right time because his American Gods novel is being adapted for Starz.
As we’ve reported previously, Joseph Gordon Levitt is playing the title role, and now Deadline tells us that it’s going to New Line Cinema from Warner Brothers, where it was set up under Warner Brothers / DC Vertigo. According to this report, Warner Brothers has a ton of superheroes already set up, and we’re assuming there’s titles that would be better developed at another studio. (Perhaps at New Line it would get lost in the shuffle.)
Levitt also just told i09 that Sandman would work better as a movie instead of a series. We’re definitely seeing more comics and graphic novels headed to TV, but Levitt said, “If you did the episodic version, I think it could very well end up as a not-as-good-version of what is already brilliant in the comics. By reworking the material into a big movie, Gaiman’s brilliant characters and ideas get to take shape in a way they never have before.
“Also, I think Sandman deserves to look absolutely mind-blowingly awesome, just on a visual level, and as cinematic as some tv shows are becoming these days, they still can’t compete with big movies visually, just because they can’t afford to.”
Again, Sandman is long overdue to be made into a movie, and if American Gods is a hit on Starz, we’re sure it will light a fire under New Line to get Sandman up on the big screen.
