Genre: Fantasy/Horror.
Studio:
Warner Brothers.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
Jon Peters, Tracey Barone, Alan Riche, Tony Ludwig, Orin Coolis
(Producers); Lorenzo Deboneventura (Executive Producer); based upon the
DC comic book series The Sandman created by Neil Gaiman.
Premise: There is a place you visit every day although you never travel to it by foot; a place where your dreams and nightmares are as solid as what you like to think of as 'the real world'. The lord of this realm is a being known as an Endless - the Dream Lord Morpheus. When an amateurish magician captures and binds the Dream Lord, imprisoning him for eighty years, dread consequences arise both in the Dreaming and on earth. And when the Dream Lord finally breaks free from his imprisonment, he has to regain his power and tokens if ever he is to return to his former rank and priveledge.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: If you haven't read an issue of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, go to your nearest comic book store and buy an issue, any issue, and prepare for a treat. Part fantasy, part mythic quest and part horror, the seventy-five issue run of the series tells the story of Morpheus from the day of his imprisonment to his actions in the present day. Because of the numerous storylines, evolving supporting characters (of which is the Sandman's sibling, his older sister Death) and detailed, richly-woven plotlines, it's an injustice to try and sum up in a paragraph the main thrust of the first eight issues, which the screenplay is based upon. However that's exactly what screenwriters have to do, and to make the job even tougher, they have to try and capture the Arabian Nights meets The Exorcist atmospheric fusion of this godlike being's fall from grace into humility, his quest to recover his lost power, his descent into Hell and confrontation with his 10,000-year-old human lover, and meeting up with his big sister for a chat on a sunny afternoon in New York City. And make it for mainstream public consumption, and appease the legions of fans who already know Morpheus. This is the comic book equivalent of adapting Shakespeare (who, incidentally, also knowns Morpheus through the course of the comic book.)
Gaiman's read the first draft of the screenplay and said that it's quite good. Rumors have it that some studio execs (of which Joel Silver may be one) have rejected the first treatment for unknown reasons. Maybe it's the odd supporting characters and locales - Lucifer Morningstar, numerous legions of demons, Victorian-era occultists, a British hellraiser, a homicidal superpowered maniac - that gave them the jitters. That, and perhaps imagining who could play these beings. To which, if we can have a moment for a personal address:
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
April 8, 1996... Director Roger Avary is linked to the Sandman project at the present time. Avary is apparently a fan of the series, who stepped in and vetoed a persistent rumor among Internet fans that the movie would be of an 'action' bent. Not so, Avary said. Definitely a good first sign. [Scoop information supplied by Jeremy Ritter.]
December 8, 1996... An anonymous email arrives in our post office box: it says that actor Ralph Fiennes (Strange Days, The English Patient) is being rumored for the part of John Constantine. [Scoop sent in anonymously.]
January 2, 1997... Roger Avary may have decided to pull out from the project. One scooper heard the rumor from "...a person who has a brother-in-law who is a member of the Director's Guild in California." [Scoops sent in by 'lmfridae'.]
January 12, 1997... When difficult, even horrible moments come about, it is still the job of the media to report the news no matter the consequences. For readers of The Sandman, we may have been forced to make the same hard decision:
"Roger Avary has left the Sandman project over creative differences with the Peters Company. Apparently they wanted a Sandman in tights and a cape punching out the Corinthian, and his vision was closer to that of an obscure Jan Svankmeyer film titled Alice where people are constantly turning into puppets. Warner Brothers is apparently going to start from scratch with a more subserviant writer." [Scoop sent in anonymously. So it may be false, right?]
[Right??]
May 24, 1997... "...the January 97 rumors about The Sandman are true. Avary has left the project. Jon Peters wants this to be Batman. He was peripherally involved in the original Batman and apparently wishes to return to the well. And Avary's take on the project was exactly right while Peter's take is exactly wrong. We can only hope that, bearing in mind the subject matter of this project, this movie may be cursed." [Info submitted by an anonymous source.]
July 22, 1997... Comic Shop News (hi guys - we see you too!) reports that the script is in an eighth draft. Neil Gaiman has little input on the script's progress... [Reported by 'widgett'; originally appeared in Comic Shop News.]
March 12, 1998... Although he's not involved with the current direction of the project, Neil Gaiman sent us an interesting rumor: there may be a new script that was recently handed in. "I haven't seen it, don't know what it's about, and know no more than this. I'm not involved." [Thanks to dreamweaver Neil Gaiman (with no connection whatsoever to the 70's pop-rock song.)]
May 24, 1998... Last week Dark Horizons ran a story about the Sandman movie project that featured information (and a link) to Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott's web site, Wordplay. Rossio and Elliott wrote the latest draft of the project, and they've posted what they know about the current status of the project online. CA's comic literature reporter 'Widgett' checked out their site and told us this:
"Thanks to Dark Horizons for pointing me to the Wordplay site, which is Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's online home. There, I found these tidbits:
* The screenplay was written under Elliott/Rossio's banner of Scheherazade Productions.
* The executive at WB in charge of the project is Lorenzo Deboneventura.
* Although the project itself may have some life their screenplay is considered quite dead.
An anonymous writer also forwarded us Ted Elliott's exact quotes concerning the Sandman project:
""Um ... bad news ...
After turning in a draft that we felt was pretty good, very true to the book (Neil Gaiman liked it -- good enough for me), we were told the script was so bad, the studio considered it undeliverable.
"(I probably should mention: between the time we took the assignment and turned it in, Jon Peters got himself attached as producer. Like a parasite. That makes the host sick, and kills it ...)
"As of this writing, our version of Sandman is dead, dead, dead ..."
[Thanks to anonymous for the forwarded quotes -- you know who you are.]
June 7, 1998... One scooper comes forward to tell us that there's a new draft of the script floating around now. The new draft, written by William Farmer, apparently has the gang at Peters Entertainment and WB quite happy with it. The scooper has not read the Farmer draft, but, as they say, "...all indications are that it's an interesting variation on the comic, with perhaps a little more action than die-hard Sandman fans might want." [Anonymous.]
One of CA's main writers, 'Widgett', sneaked himself a copy of the Rossio/Elliott draft and tendered his review:
"The Widgeman, for the record, holds this screenplay up as Exhibit YY in the case against Hollywood that they have lost their collective backbone and given in to [what they think] the masses want. This screenplay, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio is one of the best I've read in quite sometime, due to its ability to adapt a very complicated storyline for the screen and yet not lose anything crucial in the process. Unbelievably, they managed to add things as well, and do so in a way that did not seem 'tacked on' or forced. For those in the know about The Sandman (and if you're not in the know, bang your head against something and correct this mistake), this adaptation covers the first two story arcs (Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll's House) along with the family meeting of The Endless from Season of Mists, the third story arc. Most of the major plot points are there: The Sandman is captured and must deal not only with recovering his kingdom and power afterwards, but also with a nightmare which escaped his domain and a dream vortex which could destroy it.
"Missing are such elements as John Constantine, Doctor Destiny, and the JLA. But the fact is, it works without them--other characters are brought in to fill the gaps they left. For example, instead of calling on the Hecatae (the three witches who are one) to get clues as to where his objects of power are, Sandman asks Desire, Despair and Delirium. It's a very realistic screenplay in that it recognizes the Hecatae (and all these other things) would be cool, but in a two-hour movie you don't have time for them.
"Added are other appearances by The Endless, for they pop up from time to time--but in places you'd want and expect them to. When characters die, Death is there providing transport, if only for a brief second. When Sandman looks into a mirror he catches a glimpse of Despair who promptly says 'I don't want you in here.' They _are_ additions, but done correctly so that if you haven't read the comic books lately, you think, 'Wait? Was that in the original?'
"And hey, I understand Neil liked it--so it's a damn shame this screenplay is deader than dead."
[Review submitted by 'Widgett'.]
September 30, 1998... Aw, sure. Let's start some casting rumors. What the hell, it's been a slow week. "Whispers in the wind. Michael Wincott (The Crow, Metro) to assume the role of Morpheus?" Is that a question or a rumor. I dunno. [Rumor kicked off by 'anonymous']
October 13, 1998... We received this scoop here on the project. Nope. No good news here. "Okay, here's the latest real news on Sandman. A script was recently handed in to the studio which elicited remarks from the story department like, 'should be one of Warner's event films for 99' and 'a franchise launcher' and 'the best version of Sandman yet', etc, etc, etc. I should know, I wrote the script. So Sandman's FINALLY going into production, right? Wrong. WB has decided to hire another writer and START OVER ONCE AGAIN. Why? Who knows? And at this point, who cares? After all, we're talking about the studio that made The Avengers." True enough. Sigh. [Thanks to Joe Dekko for the update]
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