Joseph Gordon-Levitt Discusses SANDMAN and Its "Complicated Adaptation"
Over the past several months, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been developing a big screen adaptation of the comic book Sandman with writer David Goyer and creator Neil Gaiman. This is a film project that fans have been looking forward to for years, and this team of talent currently working on it is the best chance we have of seeing it brought to life. In a recent interview with MTV, Gordon-Levitt talked about how the development process and why it's a complicated adaptation:
“It’s really good, man. It’s slow but steady. It’s a really complicated adaptation because those comics, they’re brilliant. But they’re not written as a whole. It’s not like ‘Watchmen,’ which is a graphic novel that has a beginning, middle, and end. ‘Sandman’ was written over the course of whatever — I forget exactly, six or seven years. One at a time. One little 20-page issue at a time. And to try to take that and make it into something that’s a feature film — a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end — is complicated. I’m feeling really good about it, but it is a process, so please be patient.
Gordon-Levitt, who could potentially star in and direct the movie, went on to talk about how this story is different from some of the other big comic book films that we've been seeing made:
“Big spectacular action movies are generally about crime fighters fighting crime and blowing sh-t up. This has nothing to do with that and it was actually one of the things that Neil Gaiman said to me, he said ‘Don’t have him punch anybody.’ Because he never does. If you read the comics, Morpheus doesn’t punch anybody. That’s not what he does. It’s going to be like a grand spectacular action film, but that relies on none of those same old ordinary cliches. So, that’s why it’s taking a lot time to write, but it’s going to be really good.”
It sounds to me like Gordon-Levitt is on the right track, and that he's going to give fans the film adaptation that the comic deserves.
The Sandman comic series was originally created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. But it wasn't until Neil Gaiman came along and wrote the series that it really became popular. The 75+ issue comic arc ran from January of 1989 to March of 1996. The studio has been trying to get a movie made since as far back as 1996.
The story focuses on Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a deity who personifies dreams. Gaiman also introduced the Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters named Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium (as well as Dream).
You can watch the full interview with the actor below.
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