It’s Finally Happening: The Sandman TV Adaption
Just the other day we were observing that, as it was leaving this world, DC’s Vertigo brand had multiple projects in Hollywood based on its properties, but unusually NONE based on its biggest breakout hit, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. There were even shows based on other Gaiman books, but nothing about his most iconic series. We’re not sure why this has been the case until now, but we’re proud to confirm the error has been corrected.
Netflix and Warner Bros. Television are joining forces to bring the world of the Endless to life in a live-action Sandman series. You’ll get them all: Dream, Destiny, Destruction, Despair, Desire, Delirium — and, most importantly, everyone’s favorite perky ankh-toting manifestation of Death.
While it’s unusual a deal for a Sandman adaption took this long, it wasn’t from lack of trying. The first attempt occurred in the 1990s when WB looked into developing it as a feature film. The project languished in development purgatory and went through many writers and directors, the most recent of them being Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 2013.
The last anyone heard from that version was in 2016, when screenwriter Eric Heisserer said “The best version of this property exists as an HBO series or limited series, not as a feature film, not even as a trilogy. The structure of the feature film really doesn’t mesh with this. So I went back and said here’s the work that I’ve done. This isn’t where it should be. It needs to go to TV.” And so it has!
Sources close to the new Sandman TV project say WB is prepared to spend a crazy amount of money on it, making this the most expensive DC-branded project to date. We’ll see how good it looks when The Sandman premieres on Netflix. No release window or casting information has come out yet.