Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Gets TV Series
So word on the streets is that Neil Gaiman’s seminal ’90s comic Sandman is going to be adapted into a TV series. In the grand old tradition of nerds being horrified of adaptations of their favorite works, I have a few words to share.
First and foremost…I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. The series is long and perhaps too unwieldy for a single film; a film trilogy is too risky and expensive. But TV? Totally feasible to the marketing mind.
Second: yes, the odds are high that it will suck. Warner’s the one who bought the rights; I suppose that technically means that the show could wind up on HBO, but I doubt it. Let’s face it: Sandman‘s gothy emo tales have too much potential appeal for the high school crowd (I was in high school when I fell in love with it myself), so it’ll probably hit the CW.
But let’s face it, two of the coolest things about Sandman are the variance in art styles throughout the book, and the character of Death. (I said two of the coolest things, not the ONLY cool things.) But it would be pretty difficult for a live-action TV series to represent the multitude of art styles throughout the series, and if they shot each episode in a different style that’d be kind of weird and a bit kitschy.
And Death? Well, I can think of a couple of actresses who might be able to pull off Death– Zooey Deschanel comes to mind, if she wore dark contact lenses –but she doesn’t do a lot of TV. No, I suspect that the actress they find for Death will be obnoxious and either too perky or too mopey.
I suppose we’ll see…
Gia Manry is a professional writer specializing in geek culture. She currently writes primarily for Anime News Network, but also likes being followed on Twitter. She can be contacted via her website.