According to Joseph Gordon-Levitt – who is currently on board as producer and will likely also star – the big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal graphic novel series Sandman doesn’t have a complete script yet. Speaking exclusively to Moviefone while promoting his latest flick Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Gordon-Levitt spoke candidly about the slow progression of Sandman and what we all can hope to expect…
“Right now we’re working on a script. It’s me and David S. Goyer and the screenwriter and Neil Gaiman, as well as the good folks at DC and Warner Bros. It’s a really cool team of people. It’s a lot of the same people who worked on the Nolan Batman movies. It’s really exciting.”
Jack Thorne (The Fades, How I Live Now) is the screenwriter in question with David Goyer strictly on treatment duties. When asked about how the team will be tackling the convoluted structure of Sandman, JGL said:
We’re still kind of working it out because it’s such a complicated adaptation because “Sandman” wasn’t written as novels. “Sin City” was written as a novel. “Sandman” is 75 episodic issues. There’s a reason people have been trying and failing to adapt “Sandman” for the past 20 years…It’s such a huge world. We’re definitely talking about in terms of a whole world.
Gordon-Levitt certainly seems like the right guy to help make Sandman a reality. He’s an extremely talented all-rounder whose ambition is unquestionable. He’s also a pretty big graphic novel geek:
Those comics [Sin City] were my kind of comics. I love the stark, graphic black-and-white aesthetic. I’m no good at drawing but I remember when I was young, just having fun sketching stuff. But what’s really fun… you cover a page with India ink and scratch out the white from the black. So you’re not drawing in black lines, you’re drawing in white lines. And it’s so much fun.
Although no director has been attached yet it’s likely Gordon-Levitt might step into the hot seat having already been heavily touted as the number one choice. His directorial debut Don Jon – which he also wrote – co-starring Scarlett Johannson and Julianne Moore took over $30 million worldwide and received mostly positive responses. Although Sandman would be a huge step up, I reckon he has what it takes.
Originally published August 21, 2014. Updated November 7, 2019.
