THUD: IS THE SANDMAN TV SHOW HAPPENING OR NOT?

Controversy time! I think Eric Kripke is a crummy choice for this, no matter how much he obviously admires Gaiman's writings. I think he's a mediocre writer at best, and in terms of format and franchise engine, Supernatural was as lazy, bland, and unimaginative as you could ask for. That's particularly true of season one, when as far as I can tell the show was entirely under Kripke's guidance; it became better later on, but only when they brought in Ben Edlund and a couple of other talented writers.

A Sandman show would have to be pretty innovative in terms of format, and the mythology is a lot more complex and imaginative than the kind of inconsistent sub-Buffy stuff Supernatural usually gave us. (Though I'll admit--Dean's sit-down with Death at the end of S5 was actually worthy of Gaiman. But that's about the only moment I can think of.) It's also got some excellently subtle and careful characterization for both its supernatural and human characters, something Supernatural is also pretty lousy at. Even with the piles of raw material offered by the comic, a show is going to require someone with a lot more vision than Kripke (or Geoff Johns) on the tiller. Colour me HIGHLY skeptical.

I actually love Supernatural, but I agree that Kripke was one of the weaker links. Still, Gaiman seems to be involved and I'm sure they could bring in a bunch of quality writers.

Now if they had Edlund involved then I'd be champing at the bit.

I like Supernatural OK, but it could have been so much more than it was. It was constantly throwing out ideas and then doing nothing with them. I feel like Kripke's not much of a showrunner. If he was just a hands-off producer, ushering it into being, and they got someone like Edlund to really work with adapting the story, that would be fine.

I'm assuming there would have to be new stories, so that's my major concern. Done properly, a Sandman TV show would be pretty crazy--there'd be one episode set in Ancient Greece, then one where all the characters are cats, then one set in hell, then a fantasy epic in which most of the main characters make only the briefest appearances. Then there's the fact that Morpheus is a very atypical Hollywood hero--my understanding is that earlier versions kept falling apart because idiot producers wanted to turn him into a superhero, which is pretty much the antithesis of the character. It would be hard to build a conventional TV show around him, even for someone who I thought had more talent than Kripke.

The thing that I really like about Sandman is that the world of the story is so dense, complex, and seems to have a life beyond what we see on the page. It follows dream and fairy tale logic, and there's a sense of glimpsing aspects of the universe that we mere mortals can't really comprehend. It's not about "we have to find the magic bullet that will kill the monster so we can proceed to the next checkpoint" type of plotting, which is what genre TV favours these days. So that's my biggest concern.

To work within the context of Gaiman's story, the show would really have to be part narrative and part anthology.  So, one episode might showcase some "adventure" of Morpheus while the next might be Morpheus introducing a third-party story.  And I really don't know whether your average television watcher would go for something like that.

This is one of those situations where I hope for the best (I just finished The Kindly Ones), but can't imagine it being anything but the worst.  I foresee it being an instance like V for Vendetta or Watchmen or From Hell where it's all flash without an ounce of substance. 

In the interests of fan wank, who would people like to see do a SANDMAN TV show? Other than GDT. That's too easy. 

I was actually thinking about that this morning as I drove to work because, again, I just finished The Kindly Ones.  As you say, Guillermo is the most obvious choice.  Another name that popped into my head was Francis Lawrence.  I thought he did a great job of treading the line between the mundane world, the fantastical, and the place where the two occasionally violently smash into one another in Constantine.  My fear with Lawrence would be the one I voiced earlier, however: that he might capture the visuals without any of the emotional, thematic heft.

Henry Selick, perhaps?  The guy already has a history with Gaiman.

Constantine was great, but Lawrence was only the director. He'd probably make a great executive producer (as he did on Kings) but not really a show-runner.

My choice for show-runner would be someone like Ben Edlund, Daniel Knauf or Darin Morgan. Vince Gilligan would probably also be great, but he's kind of busy at the moment.

I love Darin Morgan, but he's not a showrunner. Though coincidentally, I'm watching season 2 of Millennium right now and I wonder if the Morgan/Wong duo might not be well-suited to this. They basically ran X-Files for a couple of years, and in some ways it's comparable: an anthology-focused show with a bubbling metaplot (granted, said metaplot never went anywhere, but I think that was Carter's fault, not theirs).

Daniel Knauf, Ron Moore and whoever else was involved with Carnivale...that might be a good call. I had problems with Carnivale's long-form storytelling, but I think that with the comic storyline laid out for them they would be able to handle it well.

Darin Morgan wouldn't want to run a show anyway. Writing scripts alone makes him feel like his teeth are being pulled.

Knauf and Moore seem like the best choices so far, I guess. At the very least, their approach would at least be well made on a surface level. Personally, all the "it shouldn't be adapted!!" cries that Watchmen got, I feel apply to Gaiman's Sandman. I don't think it can, or should, be done. Even with television's luxury to tell long term storytelling, I feel the source material is just too estoeric. Especially with the limitations that surely will come with being broadcast on CW. 

I've always felt that Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle's Sandman Mystery Theatre would be a better fit for TV in 4 episode seasons. Hell, you can even throw in a couple of Dreaming Easter Eggs in the mix.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattioli 

Henry Selick, perhaps?  The guy already has a history with Gaiman.

Okay, this might make me rethink all of what I just said.

Shit.