After decades in development Hell, Morpheus and Co finally emerge fulfilling the hopes and dreams of longtime fans by finding a home on Netflix, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, and Mike Dringenberg, The Sandman was a critically acclaimed comic book series published by DC Adult comic imprint Vertigo—which was recently announced to be discontinued in 2020.
The Sandman initially ran for 1989 to 1996, featuring an ensemble cast of characters, helmed by the Dream and his Endless siblings Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium.
Being one of the first graphic novels to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list, it was natural for there to have been many attempts to adapt the series into a featuring length film, starting in the 1990s through Warner Bros, but all never got past initial development plans, such as a noteworthy version of the project announced by Gaiman in late 2013, where he set to team up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a feature film via Warner Bros.-owned studio New Line.
Eric Heisserer, the last screenwriter attached to the New Line production, had stated in November 2016 that he was no longer involved and suggested that The Sandman would be better off as a television series, possibly on HBO, the premium cable network owned by Warner.
“I … came to the conclusion that the best version of this property exists as an HBO series or limited series, not as a feature film, not even as a trilogy,” Heisserer told iO9 then. “The structure of the feature film really doesn’t mesh with this. So I went back and said here’s the work that I’ve done. This isn’t where it should be. It needs to go to TV.”
Given the success of Gaiman’s works such as Good Omens and American Gods on Amazon Prime, and Sandman spinoff character’s Lucifer eponymous 2016 TV series, which was revived by Netflix for 2 more seasons after it’s a cancellation by FOX, streaming seems to be the perfect fit for a premiere of The Sandman starting with a first season comprising scenes culled from the panels of Preludes and Nocturnes.
The series, rumored to potentially be the most expensive program that DC Entertainment has ever produced, will be written by Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey’s Anatomy), who will also serve as showrunner. Additionally, Gaiman himself will executive produce alongside David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, NBC’s Constantine).
Who would you like to see cast as Morpheus? Or should he be recast from episode to episode, reflecting his changing character design, that is based on Goth legends Peter Murphy, Robert Smith, and Gaiman himself?
Who would you like to see cast as Death, who was based on a waitress Cinamon Hadley, known by both Gaiman and Dringenberg, whose’s iconic curly cue Goth eye makeup remains an iconic look to this day?
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