Most people first heard of writer Neil Gaiman from a long-running serialized graphic novel called “The Sandman” at DC and then Vertigo Comics. Although the main character was Morpheus, quite literally the source of all dreams, his younger sister Death quickly overshadowed him when she was introduced in “Sandman” #8 and her appearances were always very welcome, maybe since she appeared in a form not too unlike Gaiman’s many female goth readers.
Death was later spun-off into two mini-series, both written by Gaiman, and for a long time, there was talks of Gaiman adapting the first of these, “Death: The High Cost of Living,” into a film. So why has it taken so long for this project, which would be Gaiman’s directorial debut, to get going? In this exclusive interview with ComingSoon.net/SuperheroHype.com from the San Diego Comic-Con, Gaiman explains what happened and why it’s taken so long for this long-awaited movie to see the light of day.
“It’s more a matter of because it’s Sandman, which is under option by Warner Bros, Death cannot go very far from Warner Bros,” he began to explain. “So we started making it at Warner Bros. We developed a script that everyone was happy with and then the powers that be said ‘Well, hang on, it’s a $15 million dollar script and we don’t make $15 million movies.’ So then we had to figure out what to do with it, so we took it over to New Line, but it took 18 months to get the contracts to get it from Warner Bros. to New Line even though they’re both Time Warner. Then they did a budget of $30 million and asked if we could get it down from there ‘because we don’t make $30 million movies.’ So right now, I think it’s on its way over to Warner Independent, which makes more sense, but it’s as much a matter of finding a home for it and finding someone who gets what it is.”
But does he still want to direct it? “I do,” he said. “Mostly just because it’s really dear my heart. If anyone’s going to f*ck it up, I’d rather it be me.”
We’ll have a full interview with Gaiman and Stardust artist and co-creator Charles Vess in the coming weeks.
Source: Edward Douglas
