Prolific author Neil Gaiman is no stranger to adaptations of his work, and with the TV adaptation his bestseller American Godsabout to premiere, Gaiman stated he hopes the show will help get his magnum opus, The Sandman, what fans have long been salivating over: a proper TV show.
Gaiman told The Hollywood Reporter:
“The trouble with Warners, and I don’t blame them for it, is they know that Sandman is one of the jewels in their crown—and they know that with the jewels in your crown, you make movies out of them.I suspect in a weird way, the fact that they took a tiny fragment of Sandman and now it’s one of Fox’s biggest hits might actually convince people to do the classy TV series I’ve been suggesting they do for 15 years now,And if American Gods goes big? Between that and Lucifer, that could help.”
Gaiman also said he thinks The Sandman, which is ten volumes long, is too big for a film adaptation. He went on to say,
Warner Bros. and Vertigo, publisher of The Sandman, had long tried to get a film adaptation off the ground, until the bubble burst again when Joseph Gordon-Levitt left the project over creative differences. With the collapse of the film project and the new adaptations of Gaiman’s work on TV, the studio may be focusing its’ eye on TV. Conveniently, Warner Bros. owns HBO, in addition to Vertigo, and fans have long hoped the adaptation, likely a very expensive project on par with Game of Thrones, would happen on a premium cable channel.
Reviews for American Gods are only trickling out at the moment, but press has so far been highly positive. American Gods is perhaps Gaiman’s closest work to The Sandman, as both deal with gods from different pantheons existing in the modern world. If the series proves successful, it could enable more shows with similar themes.
While I’m highly excited about this project, right now this is only wishful thinking from Gaiman, who doesn’t actually control the rights to The Sandman. Warner Bros. has made no moves on the project after failing to get a movie off the ground and has made no response to Gaiman’s comments. But fan demand has been successful in the past and with the fervor around The Sandman a proper TV show is more than possible.
