Gaiman's Death, Sandman, and others

[The Xenos]

Just wondering who else around here is a fan of Niel Gaiman's works such as his Sandman and Death books.

Just heard some very interesting news about the Death film in a fanfeed from this site:
http://www.comics2film.com/FanFrame.php?f_id=21707

"Death: High Cost Of Living (Guillermo del Toro is executive producer, Neil Gaiman is still writing and directing) "

Seems it was too small a film for both Warners and New Line. It's been turned into an actual indepeant film. That's rather hilarious. The studios thirst for comic book films, but pass on this one because it's too small. It's amazing that people keep thinking that comic book movies have to have superheros and huge budgets. What fools these mortals be.

I sure the hell hope that Death gets a huge buzz and does well to show that small comic book films without any superhero can do well.

[atx]

Foolish mortals indeed.

If the end result is half as good as the original material than this will be a dark horse in the running.

[Le Pijon]

Personally, I think this is a very good thing. It's now far less likely that some clueless bigshot producer is gonna dump all over the script. No cute lil sidekick, no deathmobile or...uhhh, deathcycle? No gay robots!! Hooray!!
I think that thanks to it's small size, it's actually got a chance to be Gaiman's vision (and consequently, a hit!).

(I still gotta see Mirrormask one a' these days!)

[B]

I'd say "good thing" is understating it. Bad things often happen when writers lose too much creative control to the Hollywood types, and I'd hate to see that happen to one of my all-time favourite comics. Like LP says, as an indy flick with Neil writing-directing, this should be true to the source material, which'll make for a nice change. I certainly hope it kicks all kinds of ass, ideally both critically and financially. If it's successful, I think it could help spread the net for c2f source material to smaller, less mainstream stuff, which would be great for both the comics and film industries.

(Yeah, I know it's not likely, but isn't it a nice idea? ;))

[The Xenos]

We have this news today.

http://www.comics2film.com/FanFrame.php?f_id=27109

Later this year - if all goes well - Neil Gaiman will be directing his first feature film. It's an adaptation of his Death: The High Cost of Living mini-series, and - of course - he's scripted it.

This was the film he was discussing with Guillermo del Toro at the meeting a couple of weeks back, as I suspected. I've now had this 100% confirmed.

What more do I know? That the film will most likely shoot in late autumn, early winter, and in the UK, though the comic takes place (mainly) in the US. I also know that, as he's discussed before, Shia LaBeouf is almost certainly going to play the male lead - in the comics he was called Sexton Furnival - and that Death, or Didi as she calls herself in her mortal form, has snagged the interest of one famous young actress in particular. The Death hunt is done, if the deal works out, and soon she'll be named.

Well, it's nice to hear the movie is nearing production. At the same time I have to admit I can't stand hearing that Hollywood hot shot Shia LeBouf is connected to this favorite comic of mine. From interviews I've read, I just can't stand the guy. He raves about crappy adaptations like Constantine, I, Robot, and Transformers. Plus the lucky SOB is in Indy 4. Now he's in Death. Here's hoping he's good in it despite these other films I can't stand.

Also, soon we may hear who's playing the title role. Hell, I hope no one was inspired by some of the images I made years ago. Terrible casting on my part, in hindsight.

[Gyefox]

NO! not Shia LeBeouf. Anyone else. Please. Though he didn't kill the Constantine movie for me [They lost me after, ConstantEEN, starring Keanu Reeves], he certainly didn't help.

Anyway... I've yet to read Death, though I've seen her in Sandman and then The Books of Magic. I love what I've seen of her character. And if it's Guillermo del Toro executive producer, Neil Gaiman writing and directing, I'm seeing this.

[Mad_Moogle]

Anyone here read "Coraline"? Awesome stuff...

Oh, and mirrormask was amazing.