'I think it's that thing where something that was an enormous bug suddenly became a feature,' he said. It wasn't until the way we make, and watch, TV series was reinvented, that Gaiman actually considered The Sandman could work outside of a comic book. 'All that happens is you break your heart trying to figure out how to create a plot that will actually be Sandman,' he said. Gaiman himself spent decades shutting down attempts to bring his creation to the screen there was just too much there for a traditional movie or TV show. With the genre-hopping between horror and fantasy (while also hitting everything in between), fantastical visuals made by some of the most influential artists in the medium (original Sandman artist Dave McKean even returned from retirement to design the show's credits) and a brooding, philosophical theme, for thirty years it proved too difficult for any writer to tackle. Even Loki - the Norse god made famous most recently by his prominent role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - plays a part in the long plot the The Sandman books lay out.ĭuration 1:40 Sandman creator Neil Gaiman says that, before he would consider bringing his seminal comic series to the screen, the entire way we make and consume media had to change. Reading The Sandman is like participating in humanity's greatest crossover episode: everyone from fellow DC superheroes, to ancient Egyptian gods, to Shakespeare, Lucifer, God, and Cain and Abel aid and abet the Lord of Dreams. That puts virtually all fictional beings - and some real ones important enough to take on mythic status - firmly in Gaiman's reach. The Sandman follows the somewhat-titular character (most often called Dream, but also variously referred to as Morpheus, Lord Shaper, Kai-ckul and yes, Sandman) as he rules his domain - the land of dreams all living things go to when they sleep, and where everything ever dreamed up becomes real. In an interview with CBC, creator Neil Gaiman said before now, it just wasn't possible to bring that story to screens. The comic, which he first outlined in 1987, had an original run through DC Comics from 1989 to 1996. Among those who read it, The Sandman has since gained a cult following as one of the most influential - and creative - works of literature to come out of the comics world.īut despite going on to spawn a Hugo Award-winning prequel, a whole universe of spinoffs so popular some are already turning into their own series, and millions of fans clamouring for an adaptation on TV or film, it never happened.

He's brought The Sandman to the screen, without ruining the story.

It's taken 35 years, a journey through development hell, a bidding war and more than a few nightmares, but writer Neil Gaiman reckons he's finally done the impossible.

The sandman comic