Sandman as a TV series?

I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic series.  Ostensibly the series is about Dream of the Endless, one of seven immortal beings who embody the basic concepts of the universe.  In reality though, the series was more of a meditation on the nature of storytelling itself.  It is definitely a series that grew beyond its initial premise and it showed me how much potential comic books have as a medium.

Since Sandman is both popular and critically acclaimed, it is not surprising that there has been talk of adapting it to another medium.  Several movie screenplays have been written, but so far all attempts to bring it to the silver screen have failed. 

Currently Warner Brothers Television is in talks with Eric Kripke, creator of the Supernatural TV series, to bring the series to the small screen. 

I will admit I have my concerns about this for several reasons.

The special effects budget would be murder

The Dreaming is a strange and wondrous locale.  Its inhabitants are rarely human in appearance.  Objects are often animate and prone to change without warning.  Non-sequiturs are common.

In effect, every appearance of the Dreaming should seem like you are walking through an actual dream. Doing it correctly would require a special effects budget beyond that of a TV show.

The only alternative would be to either tone down or limit the appearances of the Dreaming.  I believe either choice would be detrimental to the show.

Sandman has a huge cast

TV shows traditionally have relatively small reoccurring cast members who are guaranteed a certain number of episodes per season.  Sandman has a huge reoccurring cast, but their appearances are often infrequent.  Even Dream himself has been known to skip out on the majority of a storyline.

Oddly, the only TV show I can think of with a large but infrequently appearing reoccurring cast is The Simpsons.  Of course The Simpsons has the advantage that it maintains a relatively small stable of voice actors who can play a wide range of characters.  A live action TV show would not have that advantage.

What is Sandman anyway?

Sandman is a dark supernatural drama.  Or maybe it is anthology series?  Perhaps it is a family drama with a twist?

One of the wonderful things about the Sandman comic series is that it really was whatever Neil Gaiman wanted it to be when he was writing it that month.  He used it as a launchpad to tell the kind of stories he wanted to tell.  What was amazing is that he managed to do this and still make it into something that formed a coherent whole when he was done.

I think this would be even harder to pull off in a TV series.  I remember reading that Paramount nixed having the sixth season of Deep Space Nine occur off the station for fear that a casual viewer would tune in and become confused. 

I can only imagine what the network would think of a show where one episode might have a serial killer convention while the next featured the dreams of cats.

Final Thoughts

I do wish Eric Kripke the best of luck if he decides to adapt Sandman to television.  I love the comic series and hope he can manage to capture some of that magic to share it with a wider audience.

I just think the road before him is a difficult one.

Random Reviews: Coraline

I suppose I should start by specifying that this is not a review of the book Coraline or the graphic novel Coraline.  Rather, it is a review of Coraline the 2009 animated movie adapted by director Henry Selick from Neil Gaiman’s original novel.

The first thing I have to say about Coraline is that I wouldn’t recommend it for very small children.  Things get pretty intense at certain points.  While I am not going to say keep kids away from the movie, I would advise you to take the PG rating very seriously.  If I was a parent I would definitely view the movie first and then decide if my kids were ready for it.

Without getting too deeply into spoilers, Coraline and her parents recently moved into a new home.  Well, new for them.  The house itself is quite old and has quite a bit of history.  None of this matters to Coraline, who misses her friends and is feeling uprooted.  The situation is made worse by the fact that her parents are very busy with their jobs and getting situated after the move.  As a result, Caroline feels somewhat neglected. 

It is then that she discovers a locked door in the house that has been wallpapered over.  Eventually, she finds that the door leads to another world.  This world contains versions of her parents, called Other Mother and Other Father, who always cook homemade dinners and are attentive to her every need.  It seems to good to be true, so I don’t think I am spoiling anything by saying that it is.

When asked what the message of Coraline is, Neil Gaiman said: "People who love [you] may not pay you all the attention you would like, and people who give you all the attention you would like may not have your best interests at heart."

Personally, this is one of the things I really liked about the movie.  Many movies start out with distant workaholic parents who make a turnaround to become completely focused on their children.  This is a lovely sentiment, but perhaps a bit unrealistic.  In Coraline, the parents probably do need to spend a bit more time with their daughter, but it acknowledges that they still need to spend some time working to pay the bills too.

Incidentally, for those of you who care, the script is pretty close to Neil Gaiman’s original novel.  One significant change is that it introduces an entirely new character named Wybie Lovat.  According to interviews with both Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman this character was added because Coraline spends a lot of time alone with her thoughts in the novel.  To translate this to film would require her either narrating the film or breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience. 

Personally, I don’t find either of these alternatives a good fit for the story.  So giving her someone to talk to was probably the best choice.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I enjoyed the movie a great deal.  It has the feel of a dark fairy tale, probably more so than any recent film besides Pan's Labyrinth. However, I tend to go for that sort of thing anyway, so your mileage may vary.