Tag Archive for "Neil Gaiman"

Not unsurprisingly, I own all the graphic novel compilations of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and am currently reading through them all yet again.  Easy to do.  The artwork in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics is superb, Neil Gaiman’s story writing is incredible and the characters literally out of this world … even when they aren’t.  Not only that, Sandman is often hilariously funny, deeply poignant and even tragic.  How many writers can manage that?  Neil Gaiman is truly exceptional.  Then you’ve got those amazing Sandman covers by Dave McKean as well! So what about a Sandman film or TV series?

A good adaption of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman could be the best thing ever in comic adaptions but a poor one would be deeply disappointing.  Fortunately, since 1991, Neil Gaiman has said that he’d rather see no ‘Sandman’ movie than a bad ‘Sandman’ movie made.  He said that the time of a good ‘Sandman’ movie is getting closer but feels that a ‘Sandman’ movie needs someone with the passion of a Peter Jackson for ‘Lord of the Rings‘  or Sam Raimi on ‘Spider-Man‘ to get the film through Warner Bros.

What I can never understand is why the original story lines never stand up when it comes to filming.  It seems that everyone is so frightened a film won’t work that they feel they must cherry-pick the best ideas from an entire series to make the first film.  This must cause a lot of problems for any sequels.  Then you get daft situations like the so-so Iron Man sequel when there is this amazing character The Mandarin in the Iron Man comics who hasn’t made an appearance in either film.  It beggars belief!

As far as my money goes I could imagine a series far longer than Heroes featuring Neil Gaiman’s Sandman but then maybe some daft idiot will pull the plug for no good reason like NBC did with Heroes.  So what do you think?  Film or TV series?  Should Neil Gaiman’s Sandman ever be made as a film or TV series at all?  I hope you feel the need to comment on this otherwise I guess nothing will ever happen anyway.  Oh, yes, I’d love to see a really top-notch adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.  If it doesn’t happen then I’ll keep reading the Sandman graphic novels until my eyes give out or the Corinthian comes for them! :-)

“… and then I’ll shag its muvva … maybe I’ll go dahn the pub forra laager .. or get in a pizza!” For those who believed Beowulf was Scandinavian it can now be revealed that he is a cheeky cockney (Ray Winstone). But that’s not the real issue with this film. How many people don’t realise they are actually going to see a computer game rather than a film? Several near us didn’t, judging by the comments. I’m sure there is a film review of Beowulf 2007 out there saying how awesome and wicked this Beowulf film is. Either they are between the ages of 12 and 14 or they have never seen Anthony Hopkins act because even with it being his voice this totally computer generated film cannot produce his acting ability. Very well done but the characters are flat and lifeless compared to real actors. Lusty young men hoping to see Angelina Jolie naked are treated to an animation nude straight out of Manga instead. So; why is it not the actors themselves in this film? Apart from Ms Jolie being understandably reluctant, it’s all about money as usual. Much cheaper to make an animated film than use real people (we all remember the terrible dodgy original Lord of the Rings film before Peter Jackson did it properly). As a big fan of Neil Gaiman’s work I’m really sorry he was involved in this Beowulf con trick … because that is surely what it is .. all the hype and big names to get people, who never otherwise would, to sit in front of a computer game masquerading as a film for two hours. Neil Gaiman can be forgiven as his passionate interest in old legends must have made the offer irresistible. So let’s blame Robert Zemeckis for this con trick. Do yourself a favour if you haven’t seen this Beowulf film and don’t. Animation is fine in its place but trying to take the place of real acting is pathetic. Anthony Hopkins is a brilliant actor, his animated double in this film is nothing like brilliant. A cardboard cut-out. A positive note though, the dragon is excellent! But then, it should be as that is where animation works - creating the imaginative images that do not exist in real life. If a trend set by this Beowulf film was to continue do we end up with a race of people who think real life is as flat and lifeless as these characters? Does the whole world turn into one great computer game? Should cinemas be allowed to show this film without a declaration that the whole film is CGI with no live actors? What do you think?

The next film version of Beowulf is going to be an ecological one apparently … “I’m Bio Wolf, I’ll save yor planet!”