Given the domination of the MCU and its copycat universes from Fox, Sony and DC, you could be forgiven for forgetting that there are other comic book adaptations in the works. That counts doubly for The Sandman, which has been planned as a movie for more than 20 years without a great deal of progress out of development hell. But it seems the wheels are steadily getting into gear: the studio is happy with Jack Thorne's script and producer David S Goyer seems confident this is no false start. That sentiment has also been echoed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who spoke to MTV at the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards about the production, which is, in his words: Slow but steady, Its a really complicated adaptation because those comics, theyre brilliant. But theyre not written as a whole. Despite it being adapted from a comic, Gordon-Levitt clearly believes there needs to be some expectation adjustment, though we are still to expect "a grand, spectacular action film." That "action film" element doesn't necessarily mean anything conventional however, particularly in terms of other comic book movies, because the source simply doesn't lend itself to a punch-first-ask-questions-later flick. Its not like Watchmen, which is a graphic novel that has a beginning, middle and end, to try and take the entire Sandman series and make it into something thats a feature film a movie that has a beginning, middle and end is complicated. That should be good news for fans of the source, since Morpheus isn't exactly your typical comic book blockbuster lead, and the film is unlikely to pack anything as vulgar as actual punches: Big spectacular action movies are generally about, like, crime fighters fighting crime and blowing sh*t up. This has nothing to do with that, it was actually one of the things that Neil Gaiman said to me, he said Dont have him punch anything. Because he never does. If you read the comics, Morpheus doesnt punch anybody. Thats not what he does. And so, its going to be like a grand, spectacular action film, but that relies on none of those same old ordinary cliches. It's a complex adaptation to say the least, which is perhaps why it's still at a snail-pace. Let's just hope the pay-off is worth it.
