Neil Gaiman Calls His SANDMAN Netflix Series "Magic" But it Might Not Be "The Sandman of Your Dreams"
For the most part, fans seem pretty excited about Netflix’s live-action series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. The most recent trailer that was released presented the show as a beautifully made fantasy epic.
In the series: “There is another world that waits for all of us when we close our eyes and sleep — a place called the Dreaming, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge), gives shape to all of our deepest fears and fantasies. But when Dream is unexpectedly captured and held prisoner for a century, his absence sets off a series of events that will change both the dreaming and waking worlds forever. To restore order, Dream must journey across different worlds and timelines to mend the mistakes he’s made during his vast existence, revisiting old friends and foes, and meeting new entities — both cosmic and human — along the way.”
Gaiman wanted to make sure to get this adaptation right. There have been several attempts over the years to adapt The Sandman and in a recent interview with Total Film, Gaiman said that he “didn’t have faith that we’d always get here.” He had faith, though, and when talking about his goal for the series, he said:
“But I had faith that the important thing was to stop bad versions being made. Once a bad version is made, you never quite come back from that. It may sound silly, but when I was 14 or 15, my favorite comic was Howard The Duck. Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Frank Brunner, satire, madness, glory... I was so excited when I heard George Lucas was making a movie. And then A New Breed Of Hero [the 1986 movie’s alt-title] came out. Howard The Duck became a bad joke. I never wanted that to happen to Sandman and I saw scripts that would have made that happen.”
In the end, though, Gaiman seems very happy and pleased with the outcome. He called the series “magic” but also says that it might not be the “Sandman of your dreams”. He said:
"I can’t promise this is the Sandman of your dreams, but I can promise I’m proud of what we’ve done. I can say that Stephen Fry as Gilbert is waiting for you, Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian, the serial-killers’ convention... We also get to punch above our weight on casting, because there are people who love Sandman and desperately want to be in it. Everybody is on Sandman because they love it. And it’s magic."
The cast includes Tom Sturridge as Dream, Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) as Roderick Burgess, Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) as The Corinthian, Patton Oswalt (A.P. Bio) as the voice of Matthew the Raven, Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place) as Death, Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) as Johanna Constantine, Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) as Ethel Cripps, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, and David Thewlis (the Harry Potter films) as John Dee.
The series is being developed and executive produced by Gaiman, showrunner Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey’s Anatomy), and David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Terminator: Dark Fate, Foundation).
The Sandman launches on August 5th on Netflix. Here’s a new photo:
