‘Sandman’: Neil Gaiman reveals how he sabotaged a film based on his famous comic series

After many years of rejecting any production set in his famous comic series, Neil Gaiman has agreed to sell the rights to Netflix for the adaptation of his new series “Sandman”. In a revealing interview for The Rolling Stones, Gaiman revealed how he once sabotaged a movie that was meant to adapt his classic graphic novel series with Morpheus.

The author explains that he leaked a horrible script to the media to prevent the film from happening: “I sent the script to Ain’t It Cool News, which was being read by quite a few people at the time. And I thought, ‘He asked me what they think about the script they will receive anonymously.’ And they wrote a fabulous article about what it was like the worst script ever sent to them. And the prospect of that film becoming a reality has disappeared”.

Gaiman goes on to explain that that script was indeed the worst his eyes had ever seen: “It was the worst script I’ve ever read.. Someone from Jon Peters’ office called me on the phone and said, “Did you have a chance to read the script we sent you?” To which I replied: ‘Well, yes, I read it. Not quite, but enough. ‘ He said to me, ‘That’s good enough, huh?’ And I said, ‘No, it really isn’t.’ He said, “Oh come on, there’s going to be something you’ll like.” And I told him: ‘No, there is nothing that I like. It’s the worst script I’ve ever read. It’s not just the worst Sandman script. This is the worst script that has ever been sent to me.'”.

On track for renewal for a second season

Despite the success achieved during its first days of release, ‘Sandman’ is still not guaranteed to be renewed for a second season.. However, Gaiman also assured that the numbers obtained for the first season help to think about this possible renewal. “Doing something like “The Sandman” is incredibly expensive. This is not a cheap show. It is the opposite of a cheap show. Is it very expensive. This means that in order to be renewed, we must behave as can be expected of us. So everyone is very confident. It has good pints. We are really on track to achieve it. But most of all it’s about how we do the month after launch.”.

However, the author wanted to reassure the fans by clarifying that, in case of non-renewal, there would be other possible ways to continue with the series: “When we signed the deal, we made sure there were other ways to continue with ‘Sandman’. But we also hoped none of these were necessary, because we love our Netflix people and they love us”.