Netflix to adapt “most if not all” of the stories from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman

Netflix is adapting Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel Sandman for the small screen, which is…ambitious. A 75-issue opus published from 1989 through 1996, Sandman is dense, and sprawling, and wildly imaginative, and given to fascinating detours off the beaten narrative path, and weird, so weird. So far as I’m concerned, it’s Gaiman’s masterpiece, but I can’t begin to think how to turn it into a live-action TV show.

And by the sound of it, Netflix is committed to doing the whole thing. During a recent Reddit AMA, a fan asked Gaiman how much of the comic would be cut for the screen.

Actually the question is phrased so delightfully it deserves to be quoted in full: “On a scale of GoT to Legend of the Seeker, how much will you be changing the plot of The Sandman for the upcoming TV show?” Gaiman’s answer: “It’s the same plot.”

So far so good. The fan, TalynRahl, also had a followup: “[W]ill you be doing the single part stories, maybe as one off episodes, or will you be focusing on the core plot of Morpheus and his tale?” Answered Gaiman: “We will do most if not all of them.”

Now, the reason that raises an eyebrow is because there are a LOT of stories in Sandman, and they don’t exactly go in a straight line. The main character is Dream, a member of a group called the Endless, who are personifications of different ideas. Dream’s big sister is Death, his twin siblings are Desire and Despair, and so on. Generally speaking, the story is about Dream’s struggles with the inevitability of change, but the specifics get really wild really quick. We learn how Dream inspired the plays of Shakespeare, one story is told from the perspective of the Roman Emperor Augustus, there’s a terrifying sea monster at one point, and what about the bit where the Endless fight over Joshua Norton, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States? Then there’s Loki causing trouble and Lucifer running a piano bar and the serial killer with mouths for eyes, plus Dream’s immortal friend Hob Gadling and the pumpkin-headed janitor who serves Dream in the Dreaming, his realm.

I could keep going. Early on in the series, established heroes and villains from the DC universe get involved, notably Constantine. And did you know that Desire lives in a giant fleshy statue of themself?

This is what I’m talking about. Sandman is going to be tricky to adapt to say the least, particularly if Gaiman, executive producer David S. Goyer and showrunner Allan Heinberg want to adapt the whole shebang. I wish them lots of luck, because if they pull it off we could have something very special on our hands.

As for who should play the Endless, there are no announcements but we have some ideas.

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h/t Bam Smack Pow