Warner Bros. Television has snatched up the TV rights to Neil Gaiman’s comic book series SANDMAN. The series, has firmly established itself as one of the most renowned works in the medium, having been in some form of film development for almost 20 years (the series first began in 1989).
But, now WB, alongside DC Comics (who published the book via their Vertigo imprint and will produce the TV series) sees a very bright future in the series, and is in talks with Eric Kripke, the creator of the CW’s SUPERNATURAL, to possibly take a stab at adapting. While SUPERNATURAL and SANDMAN in my opinion are at opposite ends of the spectrum, I think the type of show I’d love SANDMAN to be, isn’t necessarily one that would rake in viewers, so I’ll wait to pass any judgement until we’re much farther down the road.
Prior to WB’s involvement on the TV side, DC was in talks with HBO and James Mangold to develop a show, with Mangold even meeting with Gaiman to discuss the series as a whole, but after a long dormant hiatus due to scheduling issues, that never came to be.
The story of SANDMAN began with Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming realm, a deity who personifies dreams, and could work and alter your dreams as he see fit. As he series continued we met the rest of his family, a group who were the bearers of a majority of humanity’s darker emotions; Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium, and Morpheus’ real name – Dream.