Gaiman Tweets Tease for Good Omens TV, Sandman Movie

ByAlana Mancuso Hours

This month is a pretty great month for fans of Neil Gaiman’s work, as he was tagged in several tweets this past fortnight implying or outright stating screen adaptions for two of his past projects were in the works.

Pratchett, besides writing the intensely funny Discworld series, was also Gaiman’s co-writer for perhaps the most borrowed-but-never-returned book in modern fiction, Good Omens (which is also intensely funny). Following the apocalypse-averting antics of Aziraphale (an angel with a rare books addiction and a sad affinity for tartan) and Crowley (a demon who’s not that bad a guy, if you ignore he invented Welsh television), Good Omens has been a fan favorite since its publication in 1990. This is not the first time rumors surrounding an adaption of the World Fantasy Award nominated book have circulated though. Fans have been clamoring for a TV series or movie adaption for ages, and the path from book to screen (big or little) has been full of starts and stops.

Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame was originally set to produce a feature-length film version of the book, with a decent amount of hype for the project, in 2002. However, the project never reached the level of funding it needed to begin production, despite a completed script. In the late 2000’s, Gilliam still held out hope of being able to start the film, stating that, with the success of the adaption of Gaiman’s book Stardust into a feature film in 2007 and the stop-motion adaptation of his book Coraline hitting theaters in 2009, he hoped the time was ripe to push Good Omens through. Four years later, it doesn’t look like that’s happening– though Terry Pratchett’s daughter, Rhianna (who was also the writer for this year’s Tomb Raider remake), did say in 2012 that the production company she and her father co-direct, Narrativia, would be working on a TV-film adaption of the book.

In 2011, however, talks began with other fellow Monty Python member and Terry, Terry Jones, to write a television adaption. Both Gaiman and Pratchett confirmed the series was “in the works” in March 2011, but that was the last to be heard of it– and, considering the success rate for the alleged film adaption, many fans were hesitant to trust to a happy outcome. This tweet, however, has renewed hopes for lovers of Good Omens: as one fan put it in a response to the tweet, “Today is my best friend’s wedding, but this will be hard to top.”

Rumors of Gaiman’s famous graphic novel series Sandman being adapted for film, however, are a little less like rumors and a little more like confirmed facts. Actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Returns, Don Jon, Inception) confirmed via Twitter on the 16th that he was working with both Gaiman and David Goyer (all three Nolanverse Batman films, Man of Steel, and also the Blade movies) on a Sandman film. The fact that Gordon-Levitt tagged this tweet with #Prelude and has retweeted replies theorizing that the tag refers to the first Sandman collection Preludes & Nocturnes, suggests that the film will be primarily based on material from the beginning of the comic’s run.

Sandman began its run under Gaiman in 1988, and is one of the few comics to have ever made the New York Time‘s Best Seller’s List. The series has also won a whopping 26 Eisner Awards, and a Wold Fantasy Award in 1991. The comic series follows the titular Sandman, one of seven immortal personifications known as the Endless, who is called Dream. Dream presides over the realm of dreams, and the series follows his exploits and those of his siblings as they interfere with the realm of mortals, other DC characters, and each other. In Preludes & Nocturnes, Dream begins as a prisoner to a man with a lust for immortality, and must regain the symbols of his power once he has escaped in order to restore his control of the world of dreams.

As of right now, Gordon-Levitt is only working as a producer on the film, but there has been much fan speculation on whether or not he will be acting in it as well. Most speculation has been that he will be involved as playing Dream/Morpheus. However, Gordon-Levitt replied to these speculations with a denial, stating that he was signed on as the producer and that any other role in the production “remains to be seen.” Either way, both Gaiman and DC comic fans alike have a lot to be excited about as we watch this film move forward through production.

Gaiman himself has not commented on the tweets, merely reblogging them from Gordon-Levitt. While assumedly advising (and hopefully helping to write) for the movie, the extent of his direct involvement is unclear at this time.

 

Are you excited to hear about these new projects? Which are you more psyched for, the Good Omens series or the Sandman movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Alana is the daughter of an Irish Storyteller and a father who raised her on Douglas Adams. Her addiction to sci-fi and fantasy was inevitable. In 2012 her fanatic love of story led her to a Bachelors in Writing and a TV/Film Production concentration from Kalamazoo College, and she's not been able to stop writing since. She currently works as a freelance content writer and editor.