Neil Gaiman Hand Selects Potential Stars of Sandman Adaptation
Last we heard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was set to star as Morpheus in the big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, though a recent interview with Gaiman suggests otherwise. Read on for his thoughts on who he’d like to see tackle the iconic role!
Speaking with Radio Times, Gaiman reflected on the long-gestating nature of the project, revealing that the time it’s taken to get the film off the ground has unfortunately resulted in the ideal Morpheus slipping through the cracks.
“There was a time Johnny Depp would’ve been a great Morpheus, but now he’s too old and it’s fine,” said Gaiman, before mentioning another name that could potentially take over. “I think the first time I saw Benedict [Cumberbatch] was as Sherlock Holmes; I thought, ‘Wow, that’s incredibly Morpheus’. And fans probably thought the same because they immediately started doing fan-art, meshing the two of them up.”
“Then again, Tom Hiddleston is still out there!” he continued. “And the truth is, as far as I’m concerned, anybody who sounds English with great cheekbones can probably pull it off.”
Elsewhere in the interview Gaiman revealed that the script is still in the works, currently being tweaked by David S. Goyer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jack Thorne. He says he hasn’t yet seen the script, but he’s glad previous iterations of the project never got off the ground.
“My position on it has always been, for over 25 years now, I would rather see no Sandman movie than a bad Sandman movie,” he admitted. “A couple of times, people say, ‘It’s a crime there’s never been a Sandman movie’, and a couple of times, to be honest, I have thrown my body in front of a bus on a couple of bad ones over the years. I’m just happy that no bad Sandman movie has ever been made. But I’m really hoping that a good one will be. They’re a good team. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in charge, his instincts are good and he loves the material. He wants it to be true to the material.”
The Sandman series shifts between horror and fantasy, and the central character is Morpheus, the personification of dreams. After being held captive 70 years, Morpheus escapes, gains revenge, and rebuilds his crumbling kingdom while trying to adapt to the times. Warner Bros. has tried for some time to get a script right, and they may have finally cracked it.
Expect more on this one soon!
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