Though it was announced back in December of 2013, updates on the latest attempt to adapt the comic series “Sandman” for the big screen have been few and far between. MTV caught up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and asked about the process, an interview wherein he revealed why their pace is a little slow.
“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.
“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.”
You can watch the full interview in the player below, with “Sandman” talk beginning at the 1:40 mark.
Sandman, which launched DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, ran for 75 issues beginning in 1989. Gaiman’s worlds-within-worlds weaved an episodic anthology, focusing on the allegorical character of Dream and his brothers and sisters, known as the Endless (Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny).
Gordon-Levitt is set to direct the film from a script by Jack Thorne (This is England). Though no word on casting has been discussed just yet, series creator Neil Gaiman has previously shown support for either Benedict Cumberbatch or Tom Hiddleston in the role.
